Why a Dairy Cow Would Like You To Become Dairy-Free

When you see dairy cows in the summer out at pasture, they have only this time to eat grass. For the rest of the year they are indoors, in cubicles, which are too small to lie down without difficulty. Their rears are protruding into the hard slurry covered floors. They are being fed an unnatural diet of high-protein food which releases toxins in the bloodstream and cause inflammation of sensitive foot tissues. The slurry spread produces bacteria which causes mastitis.

Female calves mostly follow in their mother's footsteps and become dairy cows. These are used to replace the millions of dairy cows which are killed each year - up to a quarter of all dairy cows in the UK. Most are under five years old when they are killed simply because of exhaustion, lameness, illness, infertility and low milk yields. They are metabolically exhausted. There just aren't enough hours in the day for a dairy cow to keep up with the demands of pregnancy, producing milk, eating and sleeping. To try to keep up with the demands on her body, she will try to eat and go without sleep. Physically impossible. She has little energy left to maintain her bodily functions and the result is emaciation and hunger.

A dairy cows' young would suckle five or six times a day, but milking only occurs twice a day. Up to 20 litres of milk will accumulate in her udder causing it to protrude from between her hind legs. This huge distortion results in an unnatural stance and lameness. Well over half of the UK's dairy herd suffers this way every year, but will go untreated simply because while they are producing milk they are profitable.


The combination of accumulated milk, blood and tissue means the udder can weigh up to 75kg. The strain on a cows legs is enormous and can lead to agonizing sole ulcers, which will again, go untreated.

Humans drinking milk after being weaned is unnatural. As well as being unnatural, drinking milk is also cruel. Drinking cows milk is as natural as drinking badgers milk or cats milk. Dr Frank A. Oski, who is the Former Director of Pediatrcis, at Johns Hopkins University is quoted as saying: "There is no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves, not humans, and we should all stop drinking it today."

Besides being unnatural and cruel, drinking milk is also unhealthy.

As a youngster, I was forced to drink milk at school. I hated it, but had no choice but to drink the milk that had been stored in a stifling hot classroom until break time. Drinking warm, curdled and sour milk put me off for life. The old saying that milk is good for your bones since it contains high calcium is a myth. In fact, drinking milk actually leaches calcium from your bones. It IS a fact that milk is high in calcium but milk also has an acidic effect on the blood because of its other properties. Since it is imperative that our blood remains a neutral pH for humans to survive, calcium has to be leached from our bones to achieve the pH balance.

There are more natural ways of getting your daily dose of calcium. Milk isn't the only source of calcium. Good sources include green leafy vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, watercress, etc), beans and pulses (soya beans, chick peas, soya burgers, soya milk, red kidney beans, broad beans and baked beans), parsnips, turnips, swedes, some nuts such as hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios and Brazil nuts. Some fruits also contain calcium, for instance, dried figs and currants, not to mention olives. Exceptionally high in calcium are sesame seeds which are an ingredient of hummus, that delicious Middle-Eastern dip.

Consuming dairy products is linked to many diseases including ovarian, breast and prostate cancer as well as juvenile-onset diabetes. Saturated fat, cholesterol and animal proteins - which milk contains - are linked to many other diseases. We all know that heart disease is one of the biggest killers.

All pictures from Viva!