Thousands of calves are taken from their mothers within hours of being born. The separation of dairy cows and their newborn calves is very traumatic for both. Desperate cows can bellow for days in the hope of being reunited with their babies.
Female calves are kept for the dairy industry, she will be inseminated at 15 months to start her gruelling life as a milk machine. The poor bullcalves are just byproducts of milk production. Many are shot at birth.
Many calves die, but most will go to markets where they are abused and cruelly treated, prodded with sticks to make them walk around the ring, so young, sometimes just days old, they can barely walk properly.
His mother will be put in calf again within three months. She is pregnant for 9 months again. This will continue until she is about 4 or 5 then she will be sent to the slaughterhouse. Hundreds of dairy cows like her will be sent to slaughter in calf, they are cut from their bodies, and used in byproducts in food. By the end of her short life, she will be physically exhausted. She would have developed lameness from the extreme weight of her udders, and mastitis, ulcers on her legs, from the size of her udders. She will spend seven months inside on hard concrete floors, causing very painful foot sores. Happy healthy cows can have a long life of around 25 years, hers is cut short in just 4 or 5.
Throughout her cruel and overworked life, she would never get to love just one of the calves she gave a life to.. They were torn away, sent to market, and exported in horrendous conditions with no food or water for hours on end to Europe, to be put into wooden crates, a solitary confinement.. only wide enough to stand and lie down. This prevents muscle from developing, keeping their young flesh tender ready for the dining table. This is their home until they are between 16 and 20 weeks old, still babies, they will be slaughtered by being hung up, and having their throats cut.
The sawed-off legs of cows are collected in barrels-they will later be rendered into fertilizer, dog and cat food, or feed for pigs and chickens in factory farms.
If you are like me and love and respect animals, please show compassion for these very badly treated animals and their young. Please remember when you drink milk, what misery and pain it took to get there, and the calves who suffer trauma, cruelty, confinement, all without the love and comfort, they were deprived of from their mothers. And finally the tragic end to their lives

Everyone imagines the cow and her calves together, grazing on fresh grass in fields....This is far from the truth. cows spend 7 months of the year inside on hard concrete floors, resulting in sores on their bodies and feet.
Pregnant every year to produce far more milk then needed. These poor cows are forced to produce so much milk they can hardly walk from the sheer size and weight of their udders, causing swellings in their legs, infections in the udders, making their lives an absolute misery. Hundreds become downers, unable to stand, they are dragged by chains onto lorries by their legs, or scooped up like rubbish off the floor by a JCB.
They dont mean a thing in the dairy industry, and are just there because of mans growing greed in todays world to make more and more money.
I am unable to understand how any human being can have an animal trust in you, that respects you, has worked hard for you, made you a living, and feel nothing when it is forced to the slaughterhouse to be killed. Same treatment regarding the Dairy calves, just aged between 2 days, and a few weeks old. If they are downed, for whatever reason, be it illness or exaustion, whether in the livestock markets, or farm, they are left to suffer and die, no human compassion, or veterinary care at all. Some are left for days like this, in pain, and suffering terribly, until they eventually give up and die.
This is the real Dairy industry....and it is an appalling business.