I announced in my last post that I am going to be posting
excerpts from my new book, Vegetarian to
Vegan, here on the blog. I have received feedback from publishers who
want to represent me that people do not want to see disturbing photos
from factory farms, and they recommend I take the animal section out, or
dramatically reduce it and make it less horrifying – certainly no disturbing
photos!
However, I have turned down these offers, because I
strongly disagree. Many vegetarians are
truly looking for the motivation to finally give up dairy and eggs, and most
people I know who went vegan rather effortlessly did so because of some
disturbing statistic, story, quote, photo or video.
I did an incredible amount of research for this book (most
of the animal section information came from veterinarian journals) to uncover
details that are specific to dairy cows and egg-laying hens that I have never
seen discussed in any other vegan book before (Perhaps the other authors’
publishers convinced them to take it all out?)
I really believe that it this new and detailed information that will
finally convince many vegetarians to finally give up dairy and eggs.
Therefore, while I agree that no one wants to be
confronted with disturbing information, I believe that it’s necessary for
people to see the reality if they really want to be motivated, and thus, it’s very
important to keep this section in the book and not soften it up or take out photos.
Vegetarian
to Vegan will cover many topics you may not have heard that dairy cows
and laying hens suffer from – everything from bovine leukemia virus to cage
layer osteoporosis. Here is an excerpt
about mastitis, a very common condition that dairy cows suffer from greatly. I had heard about
mastitis before, but didn’t understand how it occurred or how prevalent it
was. See if you learn something new too…
and let me know if you think I should leave it in the manuscript or take it
out!
Mastitis
Dairy cows
on a factory farm are not milked by hand, as in years past. Instead, they are hooked up to automated
milking machines several times a day, and the machines squeeze milk out of the
cows’ teats. This mechanized process can
cause many problems, including cuts, injuries, electric shock and
infection. The most common condition
that arises from mechanized milking machines is an infection of the udders
called mastitis. Mastitis is a
potentially fatal infection of the mammary glands that can be incredibly
painful, and is a major cause of early slaughter.
Cows have
two natural defense mechanisms to help them avoid mastitis: The first way that cows ward off mastitis is
through sphincter muscles in the teat that close when the cow is not being
milked. These muscles close off the teat
so that bacteria cannot make their way up into the mammary glands. The second way that cows naturally ward off
mastitis is through the lining of the teat canal, which helps to protect the
teat canal and keep bacteria from moving up it.
However,
today’s mass-milking procedures degrade a cow’s teats by applying excess vacuum
pressure to them, which results in calloused and distended teats. Scar tissue forms in the teat canal, which
can make it difficult for milk to pass through the teat, causing milk to flow
very slowly or not at all. These
machines also degrade the sphincter muscles in the teats and damage the
protective lining, making it easier for bacteria to move up the teats into the
mammary glands. When bacteria infect mammary glands, this is the painful
condition called mastitis.
Mastitis is
a persistent, recurring problem that causes pus to appear in the cow’s
milk. While cows can be given antibiotics
to treat the condition, their milk is not sellable until nearly all traces of
the antibiotic are gone. Therefore,
because high levels of both pus and drug residues are not acceptable in the
final milk product, mastitis is a common reason that cows are sent to the
slaughterhouse. The USDA estimates that
approximately 43% of all factory farm dairy cows suffer from mastitis.[1]
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