Hello
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What are your views on Ahimsa dairy? An Ahimsa dairy farm keeps calves with their mothers until they’re weaned. They don’t slaughter cattle or send cattle to slaughter. They also don’t kill the male calves. When they are old enough, they are put to work. At least one Ahimsa dairy farm names their cattle and seems to *love* them.
Please be kind. I have had at least one not very nice comment when I posted about this to a vegan Facebook group. Being kind to people who aren’t vegan, who are just going vegan, v-curious and those who cheat/slip up on veganism doesn’t equate to supporting animal cruelty. You need to be kind to people as well...
How would you feel if the same thing were done with human breast milk? After all, human breast milk is much better suited for humans than cow's milk. We could put a bunch of women in a farm and impregnate them so they have babies and start producing breast milk. We wouldn't kill the babies; we would leave them with their mothers until they're weaned. (But we can't let them stay with their mother too long because we need to take their mother's breast milk and sell it; otherwise, how would we make any money?) Then, when the woman stopped producing milk, we would have to make her pregnant again so that she would produce more milk.
I don't consider impregnating cows against their wishes, and then taking away their babies after a while, to be humane, but even for people who think it is, such "milk" would be extremely expensive. Not only would the calves be drinking most of the milk, but cows are not able to get pregnant forever. Keeping all those cows around after they can no longer give birth and produce breast milk seems extremely inefficient. If all cow's milk were produced this way, only the wealthiest people would be able to afford it; most people would not be able to eat or drink dairy products.
Considering how tasty soymilk is, and how much healthier it is for humans, I have trouble seeing why anyone would support an industry that keeps cows confined, repeatedly impregnates them, and sells their breast milk. There is something very unnatural, let alone cruel, in all of this.
Many vegans feel horrible about the way our society treats animals. They are often stressed out because they are surrounded by the carcasses and secretions of dead animals wherever they go. They don't want to have to constantly defend their decision to live a more compassionate life. They don't want to have to explain to people why they refuse to eat animal products that were produced in supposedly humane ways. They don't want to have to think about the specifics of artifically impregnating cows and then taking away their babies and their milk. It causes vegans mental pain and anguish to have to answer this sort of question. It is therefore unkind to ask them this sort of question. That's why some of them respond unkindly.
The question of whether you want to support cruelty to animals is one that is between you and your conscience.
You need to decide whether it is consistent with your core beliefs. No one, vegan or non-vegan, can help you with that.
