Is this humane?

#dierenleed Dairy cows live a life of confinement and cruelty.

The cow in the dairy industry
In the livestock industry, milk production of dairy cows has increased enormously in the last century. Where a dairy cow gave 2,500 kilos of milk a year a hundred years ago. The milk yield is therefore more than tripled. A cow is milked on average 315 days a year. This amounts to an average production of 8000 litres of milk per cow per year. Some cows produce up to 100,000 litres of milk during their lifetime. The extremely high milk yield, requires a huge amount of energy from the cow. You can compare it to 8 hours of running every day: you won't last long. Many dairy cows are therefore sick, they have reduced resistance and painful inflammations on the udders and claws. In order to keep milk production going, dairy cows receive a lot of concentrated feed. A cow can have an age of20 yearsreach. Today, however, the average dairy cow is onlyfive to six years old.When a cow gives less milk or is not optimally fertile, it is transported to the slaughterhouse - Yes. She is then replaced by a heifer , a young cow, often with a better Genetic potential. As part of the sustainability of the sector, we are looking for ways of allowing cows to reach a higher productive age.

Dutch dairy cows bring a calf into the world every year to keep the high milk production going. Dairy cattle are specially bred and selected for milk production and therefore not meat production. All the bulls and part of the female calves are therefore seen as by-product. These excess calves are fattened in special stables to end up as (white) veal. In addition to the residual calves of Dutch dairy farmers, an additional 800,000 calves are imported from abroad each year. Merging these young calves (2 weeks old and away) increases the risk of disease. Calves with a barely developed immune system are exposed to all sorts of new germs against which they cannot fight well. If they are transported over long distances (hours to days long journeys from Ireland or the Baltic States occur regularly), they are even more vulnerable by stress, lack of rest and insufficient nutrition. Partly because of this, the use of antibiotics in this sector is still far too high and coupling treatments are still needed regularly. This applies not only to imported foreign calves but also to Dutch calves brought together from hundreds of different farms. There are some things to do about the 'decent off' of the residual calves. Meat calves are kept on concrete or hardwood grated floors, without soft berth, without straw, without grazing and with little room for movement. This method of keeping does not, in fact, fit cattle.
Transport of young Irish calves to the Netherlands

Transport of young Irish calves to the Netherlands

Why don't we give animals a decent life?
Farm animals live a terrible life because of the enormous power of the livestock industry combined with the fact that most people do not know the true horrors that these animals face. Most think they live a decent life with a bad day, and few of us know the truth. It's not just locking up the animals. It's mutilation without painkillers, extreme growth that often leads to broken limbs and a general system of absolute neglect where suffering is just about the last thing the meat industry cares about.

How many eggs does a chicken lay?
Wild chickens lay only 10 to 15 eggs a year. They lay 5 to 7 eggs at a time twice a year. Their body is not set to the daily laying of eggs. So it is a misconception to think that chickens naturally lay an egg every day. Chickens in the egg industry currently lay 250 to 300 eggs a year...