Dairy industry in Australia, bobby calves, etc, Solution: veganism

Dairy industry in Australia:
Many of us don't give a second thought to where the milk in our latte or the cheese in our sandwich comes from.

But as the saying goes, there's a little bit of meat in every drop of milk. Behind the dairy industry lies a brutal secret: the 700,000 or so "bobby calves" slaughtered each year in this country at as young as five days of age.

Dairy cows are impregnated yearly in order to produce milk for human consumption. But their male calves are "surplus to needs".

Most will be destined for the slaughterhouse within days of birth. Bobby calf meat is considered to be of low value and is predominantly exported as ground beef and offal to Japan and the US.
Others will be killed several months later, after they have been fattened up for veal.

Female calves are retained to follow in the footsteps of their mothers or, if not viable as dairy cows, will also be swiftly consigned to the abattoir.
Bobby calves endure long stretches of transport to regional abattoirs. This is a major stressor for any food animal, and even more so for calves, who are physiologically immature, with limited fat reserves, poorly developed ability to maintain body temperature and a lack of responsiveness to external stimuli.

Trucks can be overloaded, without bedding or room to lie down.

Calves are lifted and dragged by their tails or legs, or in some instances electrically prodded to get them moving. Many remain overnight, without sustenance, in the abattoir before they are slaughtered.
It is well established that cows, like humans, are sentient beings. They feel pain, distress, fear, vulnerability, loneliness, grief, hunger and thirst.
Mother cows form a strong maternal bond with their babies from as little as five minutes of contact after birth. Early separation of mother cows from their young causes stress, which is often manifested by distressed calling. Calves are traumatised after being taken from their mothers shortly after birth.
It is a forlorn picture. These newborn animals are utterly defenceless, and totally beholden to us. To serve our desire for cow's milk we bring them into being, with all their capacity to feel and their complex subjectivity, and then kill them pitilessly, as if they were the insensible by-product of an industrial machine.

The bobby calf trade exemplifies all that is ethically perverse in animal agribusiness.
Now, to make matters worse, the Australian government is proposing an amendment to livestock standards that will legalise the starvation of bobby calves for 30 hours before their slaughter.

Currently the unenforceable Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals: Land Transport of Cattle provides that calves should be fed within six hours of transportation and must not be left without appropriate liquid food for more than 10 hours.

The arguments being used to support the amendment are just as wrong-headed as the trade itself.
In the end, they boil down to reducing costs for the industry, and, as is so often the case, the government is onside with agribusiness.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/brutal-secret-behind-the-dairy-industry-20110128-1a7tb.html#ixzz2ac73Jve5
They advocate regulating the industry. I advocate abolishing the industry totally. There is a Complete difference between these approaches.
There is no "humane" breeding and murder of cows. You can't kill a sentient being "humanely", since the sentient being doesn't want to be killed by humans. I believe in this approach to Animal rights: http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/

Note, the solution is not regulating the animal exploitation-industry, the solution is to totally abolish it. There are no "humane" transports to slaughter, there are no "humane" slaughter houses, there are no "humane" confinement of cows, and no "humane" separation and destroying of families.

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Separation of mother cows with their calves:

Quote from the Australian dairy industry's website:
Calf welfare is improved by removing it from the cow within 12 hours of birth and applying the 3-step calf rearing plan to reduce the risk of infection

“Research suggests that separating cow and calf as early as possible reduces the stress on both as there will be minimal bonding between them.
It is also easier to teach the calf to drink milk from a bucket or artificial teat. This ensures it receives enough high quality milk (including colostrum) to keep it healthy.
Calves should be removed from the cow within 12 hours of birth to:
• reduce the risk of getting diseases from adult cattle, and
• lower the stress for the cow and calf “

Quote: http://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/Animals-feed-and-environment/Animal-welfare/Calf-welfare/Managing-calf-welfare.aspx
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That is totally bias that any sentient being would benefit of becoming forcefully separated to her mother.
They are only separating the cows and their calves to increase the profit.
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Slaughterhouses:
There is a reason why they don't want anyone to film inside of the building, and don't allow this to take place.
Slaughterhouses are cruel per definition. It is always a cruel action to take the life of a healthy sentient being, who doesn't want to be killed by us.

“Ahimsa milk” is for violence towards animals. They are compromising animal rights and splitting families

“Ahimsa milk” is making cows pregnant against their will each year, and they let the cows live a life that is not the life of freedom that all animals deserve to live. They are completely distorting the beautiful concept of Ahimsa – non-violence and compassion to all living beings. It is not Ahimsa to use animals. The cow milk belongs to their calves. Calves needs their calcium and should not be drained of her calcium by humans. The calves needs and have the right to their mother – whom “Ahimsa milk” is talking from them when they are small babies:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcQ6yBEE5N0&feature=player_embedded

The milk industry and other usage of animals (also breeding of dogs and other animals) are splitting families. Read more in this article about the slavery that the animals get to live in because of that our society looks upon them and treats them as “property” and sees it as a morally right thing to do to steal their milk and using other animals in any other way. It is compromising animal rights, health and well-being, including what they do both on “no-kill” diary farms and other diary farms,  that are the root to all animal abuse in the world:

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/what-are-the-roots-of-freedom-and-slavery/

Milk is causing humans a vast amount of health problems, including osteoporosis, diabetes and cancer:

http://www.adelicatebalance.com.au/

Furthermore, the milk industry and other animal industry, has a vast environmental impact and is causing poverty, starvation, a vast amount of greenhouse-gases and subsequent deaths by droughts and floods because of climate change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws0f9s4Bas&feature=em-uploademail

Please all persons reading this, be vegan. It is a very easy decision (see www.vegankit.com ) to not live a life that is oppressing other sentient and feeling beings. I became this autumn and I am doing much better both physically, emotionally and spiritually – not to be a part of oppressing other sentient beings. It is a very easy choice to stop being a part of the suffering and death that our fellow precious animals are going through.

From their website: "New born calves are kept with their mothers for the first four to five days."
"Cows will give birth  to calves once every two years, a maximum of 5 calves in a lifetime. This will take place both naturally through the use of a bull or sometimes by artificial insemination."

They are disregarding the rights of animals.
Animals have the right to their body and not to be milked against their will and not to be made pregnant against their will - just like a human mother. The right not to be drained of calcium.
They have the right to live with their mother ALL life, not only for four to five days.
All milk companies are disregarding the rights of cows.
If we love cows, we can't compromise their rights.

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We better work for a vegan world, so that all animals can be free and be together with their families.

We shouldn't support businesses that compromise animal rights. It doesn't help the animals. It supports and promotes animal exploitation. What helps the animals is decreasing the demand of animal products by going vegan and inspiring others to do the same. This will reduce the number of animals being killed and hurt, and animals being used in other ways.

As long as people want to drink the cows milk, and people want to make a profit on exploiting the animals, they have to take the calves away from their mother. Otherwise the calves would drink the milk. The people are drinking the milk that belongs to the calves. It is not made for humans to drink or to use it to make cheese, it is made for the calves.

Have you seen this lecture?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fws0f9s4Bas&feature=em-uploademail
I think you will like it.