FFS it doesn’t fucking matter where you buy “your” milk
for the billionth time: mother cows produce (mother’s-)milk solely for the nourishment of their calves not for you anthropocentric, exploitative, selfish, speciesist assholes. you all should have been weaned off milk a long fucking time ago, but if you think you need it so bad, at least get it from your own mothers, seriously go ask them, instead of destroying families and killing mothers and their babies.
it doesn’t matter if you get it from a cute little mom & pop farm far away from town or from a factory farm, exhausted dairy cows are still sent to slaughter and their calves are either sold for veal or grow up to be the next generation of milk machine slaves.
dairy is slavery. dairy is (female) oppression. dairy is rape. dairy is kidnapping. there is no humane way to commit either of these vile acts. go vegan or die in denial (and with fucked up bones).
You are my favorite.
i-have-forgiven-jesus asked: check out 'my life as a feminista' as her url (obvs no spaces) she is absolutely horrified at me saying that speciesism is on the same scale as any other form of discrimination. feminists who love milk absolutely confuse me on many levels. i can understand why at first they don't make the link, but after being informed of it they should at least TRY...
I actually stumbled across her blog before, saw her headline about loving dairy and being a feminist, and was completely repulsed because those are such absolute contradictions to each other. While I am frustrated that people sometimes don’t understand the connection between dairy and female oppression to no fault of their own, once they’re exposed to it and they throw some shit in your face like “SORRY I DON’T GIVE A FUCK I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE JUICY CHEESEBURGERS,” that’s pretty similar to the absurdity of when someone says some bullshit like “SORRY I DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT WOMEN/OTHER PEOPLE, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE BEING SEXIST/RACIST AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS LOL.” They’re the same adamant mindset about being set in their own selfish ways, despite how their actions obviously harm others.
Sexism, racism, and speciesism are all obviously different forms of oppression and not completely identical to each other because they manifest in different ways, but they are all identical in severity and they all deserve just as much attention as the other. Ignoring one or viewing one as less important than the other only makes room for inequality to continue. They are all stemmed from the same mindset — believing that one group is lesser than you due to something they had no control of, and oppressing them because you see them as below you. Each form of oppression tries to dismiss the victim’s suffering as unimportant, while actively ignoring the rights and basic wants of their victims for the sake of the oppressor’s benefit.
Feminists who are aware of how cows and other animals are exploited, raped, and brutally abused for the dairy/meat industries and claim they just don’t give a fuck because they love the products that come from these animals’ suffering are some of the most hypocritical people ever. It’s one thing if you’re just a massive piece of shit who doesn’t care about anyone, but I’m always so taken aback by people who claim to be for equality and making changes in their lives to work toward that. They claim to want to call people out for their injustices and get people to analyze the way that their lifestyles impact others, but then when they are finally called out to do the same thing, they act just like every other ignorant douche bag who tries to counter anti-sexism or anti-racism rhetoric with the same excuses of self interest and apathy. It’s mindnumbingly frustrating.
Feminists: if you aren’t looking into the links between animal oppression and human oppression, working towards including animal rights in your struggle for equality, and going vegan — you’re doing it wrong.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the dairy cows that have been deprived of their children so you creeps can steal their secretions and eat their children’s infantile flesh.
Anonymous asked: Do you believe there is a way in which you could humanly produce animal products for consumption. Because you your body needs calcium, cows make milk, yes the industry's are bad but humans evolved to be able to harness the world around them.
No. There is no humane way to take an animal out of their natural environment and force them into serving you for all of their lives. There is nothing humane about thinking that an animal’s entire existence is purely for your own benefit while erasing them as individuals. You can’t deny an animal their right to life and freedom “humanely,” ever. Confining and farming animals for any product is cruel in and of itself. Any sort of animal agriculture works completely against animal rights.
That’s the problem. Humans did not evolve to dominate and take entire control of the earth and every other life within it. Humans do not own the earth, we are part of it. People need to understand that and stop treating the earth and animals within it as if everything and everyone exists just for us. That’s an anthropocentric view and it’s not only horrible, but it’s beyond detrimental. It’s what is currently destroying the world and everything in it.
Cows make milk for their babies. Not for us. It’s for their calves, in the same way that humans produce breast milk after they have given birth for their young. If we needed a constant supply of breast milk all of our lives, why would our bodies stop providing it for us? If it were naturally required, we would have constant supplies of milk for ourselves. If adult animals needed to drink milk, why does every mammal always wean their young? How could animals in the wild survive without milk if it were mandatory for survival? No adult animals need milk. This is why all animals are weaned past infancy and move on to other diets that are necessary for them while excluding milk from their diets since they don’t need it anymore. If drinking another species’ milk throughout adulthood were natural, we would see bears drinking goat milk or cows drinking pig milk and so on. Do you not see how bizarre it is for humans to drink cow’s milk?
The dairy industry is more than just “bad.” It’s abhorrent. It treats cows as exploitable objects instead of sentient beings. It revolves around rape, kidnapping dairy calves from their mothers only to kill them, and stealing cows’ milk; just to continuously repeat this process over and over until they’re no longer “profitable” and then they’re killed regardless. The dairy industry is responsible for the veal industry because of this influx of “useless” male calves that are by-products of the dairy industry. It’s a system that treats cows and their babies as garbage. There is not a single humane thing about it.
If you don’t understand why the dairy industry needs to stop, check out these: Ohio veal investigation | Texas dairy calf “disposal” methods | Ohio dairy farm footage | Mercy for Animals dairy calf rescue
Of course we need calcium. There is actually about 50% more calcium in soy, almond, and other plant-based milks than the amount in cow’s milk. There is also plenty of calcium in leafy green vegetables and other plant foods. Here’s a good resource for vegan sources of calcium. It’s beyond silly to think that calcium = cow’s milk. It’s such an easy thing to attain from so many other foods.
Anonymous asked: People always ask me "what about dairy cows who HAVE to produce milk?" How would you go about answering that question?
You must be new here. :p
Cows do not HAVE to produce milk. They only produce milk if they were pregnant and have just given birth, which in domesticated cattle is a direct result from farmers forcing the cows into pregnancy. It’s like saying human women HAVE to produce milk. Uh, no, we don’t. If we haven’t recently given birth, our bodies don’t produce milk. Neither do cows, or any other mammal. Cows aren’t magic milk machines that are incessantly spewing out milk, this only happens because humans force them into constant cycles of rape, pregnancy, birth, kidnapping, then taking their milk for human consumption while their stolen babies are killed or turned into veal. They repeat this cycle nonstop for their entire miserable lives.
Once they have given birth and are producing milk, the milk does need to leave their body. But the misconception here is that cows must be milked by humans. That couldn’t be further from true. Cows need to nurse their babies, that’s where the problem lies. That’s the entire reason they are even producing milk in the first place. If humans didn’t deprive their babies of their mother’s company and milk, there wouldn’t be this issue. All of these “problems” of cows supposedly needing us to step in and milk them are man-made and can easily be resolved by humans not taking what isn’t ours. A lot of people will now say “but some cows produce more milk than any baby could handle!” and this is true, but again — only a result from human manipulation. Many farmers inject their cows with ridiculous amounts of hormones to make milk production skyrocket. And, again, the solution is to leave cows and their babies the fuck alone.
If they still don’t understand why this is unethical, show them these: Ohio veal investigation | Texas dairy calf “disposal” methods | Ohio dairy farm footage | Mercy for Animals dairy calf rescue (This last one is significantly less graphic, and it’s a super cute story. It’s really informative though.)
Hope that clears it up for you.
I wanna be a vegetarian
I literally just cried for about a minute over a gif of a pig getting punched and other stuff I won’t go into detail about. I so badly want to be a vegetarian (some people already presume I am); the only thing I’d find hard to give up would be chicken ‘cause I’ve always liked chicken, ugh. I need the power to just do it. I could never be vegan though, ‘cause I don’t see the harm in drinking cows milk, it’s just like breast feeding but for cows, right? I also really like cheese and that doesn’t harm cows. So many thoughts. That was seriously upsetting to see but really eye opening. I think if more people saw that stuff, they’d want to turn, too. We shouldn’t need to eat meat.
We don’t need to eat meat :). If you Google ‘sources of’ for protein, calcium, etc you’ll see that you can get everything you need. You will have to keep an eye on B12 though as that is from bacteria in the meat. B12 is found in nutritional yeast, tablets, fortified cereals, soy milks and more.
For inspiration on not eating chickens, why not look into their treatment, how they are bred, what is done with the excess, about their behaviour patterns and how mothers will normally talk to their unborn chicks. My last meal before I went vegetarian was a chicken burger and I was so sad at what I saw as ‘giving up’ something that I love. Now I protect chickens. They are beautiful creatures and I can eat other things that are just as yummy and aren’t sentient.
If you want to learn more about the dairy industry, seriously check it out as it’s not just ‘breast feeding’. The cows are ‘artificially inseminated’ so that they produce a calf (which is then slaughtered for veal or dog food) so that they continue making milk. Many dairy cows live less than half the normal life span because once their production rates fall, they are sent off to slaughter. Cheese is very hard to give up due to the hormones that are present in milk and concentrated in cheese. Just check out the information that should be all over the net, or ask some tumblr vegans for links, and make an informed decision.
Please don’t think this is confrontational or anything, just trying to give you some info ^_^.
Dairy is supposed to be breast feeding for cows, you’re right about that. But their milk is produced for their babies, since they only produce milk once they have given birth (just like humans). Instead, we rape them and disrupt all natural reproduction methods, steal their milk, and kill their babies repeatedly since the babies are useless to us. Pretty harmless, amirite?
If you wanna understand why dairy is cruel, watch these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y82jTI3BqRM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTkM1OHFQg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki57eFs7XFo
All of those videos are part of the production of dairy — not meat. Seriously. Watch those, and then see if you STILL think that dairy doesn’t hurt cows.
Some questions for “feminists” who aren’t vegan.
I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, because I seem to never be able to escape all of you illogical so-called feminists who aren’t vegans. I’m really trying to wrap my head around you guys. I keep coming across “feminist” blogs who are self-proclaimed cheese lovers or dairy fanatics, or feminists who are so enthralled in defending women’s rights, all while completely disregarding the ways in which they themselves are supporting an entire system that exploits billions of females’ bodies every year. The dairy industry being the main one you all seem to so shamelessly have some sort of sick infatuation with. I’m just so sick of your bullshit, I really can’t take it anymore.
I can safely assume that you all are strong proponents for body autonomy, and you all believe (as a major aspect of feminism) that no female’s body is someone else’s for the taking, right? You all so blatantly promote the idea that only the individual gets a say in what happens to her body and no one has the right to use a woman’s body or treat a woman as if she’s simply a vessel for reproduction. And this is an absolutely valid and essential fight that needs so much more attention than it currently has, I’m a feminist myself and I back these struggles 100%.
But why is it that you constantly fight for your rights to your own body, and you vehemently insist that no female’s body is up for subjugation and manipulation at someone else’s discretion, all while doing the same to countless other females? Why are you allowed to cast aside all of the plights and utter manipulation so many female animals are currently facing? What makes their suffering so different from your own, or any other woman’s? Are their bodies not being turned into machines? Are they not being objectified? Are their reproductive systems not being exploited and claimed as public property under a patriarchal system? What gives you (or anyone else) the right to have complete domination over another being’s body like that?
You cannot claim to be against the oppression of females and fight against gender inequality while eating animal products or supporting animal exploitation of any form. It’s just so absolutely outlandish given the ways that our patriarchal culture is so heavily rooted within animal agriculture. It is debatable that perhaps the animal agriculture system is where the entire patriarchal system began. Do you not understand that the meat, dairy, and egg industries flourish off of the subjugation of females and their reproductive systems? Can you not see that this entire system is built around the principle of reproductive control of female bodies and the objectification of them? They literally thrive off of female oppression. In fact, they wouldn’t even exist without it. The ways that these animals are treated is the exact same as the way human females have been treated since the dawn of time. Having compartmentalized compassion and only believing that some females should be respected as individuals is so ass-backwards I can’t even comprehend it.
Sows are thrown into gestation crates and their entire miserable lives consist of nothing more than being viewed as incubators and units of mass production. They live in stalls so narrow that they can’t even turn around, most of them spend the duration of their lives wallowing in their own feces. They are repeatedly inseminated, again and again, only to give birth to endless litters of piglets until they are “spent” and their bodies are no longer “profitable,” so they are then killed. Egg-laying hens are seen as nothing more than items and their bodies are also abused and their lives are stolen from them so that they can be forced into mass production for agricultural businesses.
Dairy cows are treated as mere milk machines. They’re continuously impregnated just like sows, and they are repeatedly milked throughout their lives. Dairy cows are intentionally kept underweight because all of the energy from the food they consume goes right out of their bodies and into the milk they secrete, which is supposed to be feeding their babies. Instead, their babies are stolen from them, their babies are slaughtered and disposed of, while the mothers are kept alive in order to be used as production vessels. Animal agriculture robs all animals of their individuality and body autonomy, but especially female animals. Female animals have arguably some of the worst treatment inflicted onto them all because of the fact that they have a uterus which deems them to a life of reproductive exploitation and commodification. Whether it’s their milk, their eggs, or simply their uterus that the government is after, being able to produce any of these things guarantees that animal a life of absolute hell as a reproductive slave.
Tell me that is not exactly what you claim to be against as a feminist. Tell me that these industries don’t profit off of the exploitation of females, I fucking dare you. If I see one more “feminist” who so proudly supports the subjugation of other females and rants about how much they just “LOoOoOoOoVe cheese and milk and eggs~!” (i.e. products which are the epitome of our patriarchal system), I’m going to have to start breaking some necks. You are not feminists. You’re fucking hypocrites and nothing more. Either fight for the right of every individual’s body autonomy and refuse to continue supporting industries that revolve around the oppression of females, or shut your mouths and admit that you don’t truly believe in equality.
Most of you know exactly what it feels like to be treated like dirt, to be told that you’re a lesser gender. You know what it means to be viewed as nothing but a body. You understand how awful it is to be objectified constantly, to be looked down on and to be cast aside all because you’re viewed as less powerful and less important and less worthy of consideration as men are. You know what it feels like to have your autonomy denied to you. So why the fuck are you turning around and doing it to these animals? By supporting animal agriculture and other industries that oppress and exploit animals, you are treating these animals exactly as I just described. You are brushing aside another female’s suffering. You’re ignoring the ways in which other females are being exploited and taken advantage of. You’re saying it’s okay to treat another female as nothing more than a body. The very things you want to destroy, you are constantly perpetuating every time you consume animal products of any kind. It is only through a vegan lifestyle that one can truly embrace feminism for what it genuinely is.
I really can’t do anything but scoff at those of you who claim to support gender equality and women’s rights all while you blindly shovel things down your throat that were produced through the rape, reproductive system manipulation, and exploitation of such a vast number of other females. Those females are just as worthy of your consideration as anyone else is. Their bodies and their lives are just as much their own as yours is. So next time, before you want to start talking about how the government needs to stay out of your body and your life, you sure as hell better make sure that your own lifestyle doesn’t entirely revolve around objectifying other females and exploiting someone else’s body.
thejrush asked: I agree with is the whole 'milk is unnecessary' argument. Not only are we the only species of mammal to drink milk after the nursing period, we are the only mammal to willingly seek out and intake another mammal's milk. Neither of those things can be healthy.
It’s not even about health though. Yeah, it’s disgusting and terrible for your body and it’s killing the people who drink it, but that’s not my concern. It’s about the kidnapping and rape that goes on in order to produce it. It’s about the cows whose lives are destroyed and who are subjected to so much misery for shit we don’t even need. If someone wants to be unhealthy by eating foods that don’t impact others, go for gold. But if they want to be unhealthy while directly causing extensive suffering and trauma onto others, fuck that. That’s never acceptable under any circumstances.
A Cheese Story.
Step 1: Mother gives birth to baby.
Step 2: Baby takes his first steps. Mother nervously stares at human observers. She knows what’s coming. She’s seen it before.
Step 3: Less than 15 minutes after birth, the still-wet baby is taken from his mother.
Step 4: Mother is hooked onto mechanical milk suckers, so her baby’s nutrients can be fed to humans (thus significantly increasing humanity’s cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes rates…but I digress…)
Step 5: Newborn baby is sent to live the rest of his short life on a veal farm.
(most of the photos above were taken by my hero Jo-Anne McArthur)
Dairy = Veal = Cruelty.
Break your cheese addiction. I know it’s tough (trust me, I KNOW it’s tough- at first), but I promise it goes away.
It’s worth it.
(via vegan-dreams)
deathbysharpie asked: Not taking the ethics of veganism into account (I and all vegans know that nothing whatsoever justifies killing sentient beings) what do you have to say about the low digestibility of plants in comparison to flesh and dairy consumption? I'm not entirely sure about this but it seems more logical to go straight to the source (fruits and veggies) rather thsn eating an animal. But then I don't quite know how to phrase my counter-argument to someone who has a complete disregard for animals' sentience
I kind of went into detail here about how eating meat and animal products isn’t natural, all ethics aside. For digestibility especially, I would mention how colon cancer is predominantly caused by meat consumption and osteoporosis is caused by dairy consumption. We have long intestines, unlike natural meat-eaters who have short intestines so that carcass passes through their body quickly and doesn’t linger in the intestines; and since we have longer intestines, meat ends up staying inside of us for far too long and rots in there, thus causing colon cancer. Dairy is also not at all natural for us, and lactose intolerance is our body’s natural reaction to it because our bodies are rejecting it, and rightfully so. Some of us being able to tolerate lactose in our bodies is simply a disorder.
I just found this article:
“The Truth about Dairy
According to Dr. Willett, who has done many studies and reviewed the research on this topic, there are many reasons to pass up milk, including:
1. Milk doesn’t reduce fractures.(i) Contrary to popular belief, eating dairy products has never been shown to reduce fracture risk. In fact, according to the Nurses’ Health Study dairy may increase risk of fractures by 50 percent!
2. Less dairy, better bones. Countries with lowest rates of dairy and calcium consumption (like those in Africa and Asia) have the lowest rates of osteoporosis.
3. Calcium isn’t as bone-protective as we thought.(ii) Studies of calcium supplementation have shown no benefit in reducing fracture risk. Vitamin D appears to be much more important than calcium in preventing fractures.
4. Calcium may raise cancer risk. Research shows that higher intakes of both calcium and dairy products may increase a man’s risk of prostate cancer by 30 to 50 percent.(iii) Plus, dairy consumption increases the body’s level of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) — a known cancer promoter.
5. Calcium has benefits that dairy doesn’t. Calcium supplements, but not dairy products, may reduce the risk of colon cancer.(iv)
6. Not everyone can stomach dairy.(v) About 75 percent of the world’s population is genetically unable to properly digest milk and other dairy products — a problem called lactose intolerance.
Based on such findings, Dr. Willet has come to some important conclusions:
• Everybody needs calcium — but probably not as much as our government’s recommended daily allowance (RDA) and calcium from diet, including greens and beans is better utilized by the body with less risk than calcium supplements.
• Calcium probably doesn’t prevent broken bones. Few people in this country are likely to reduce their fracture risk by getting more calcium.
• Men may not want to take calcium supplements. Supplements of calcium and vitamin D may be reasonable for women.
• Dairy may be unhealthy. Advocating dairy consumption may have negative effects on health.
If all that isn’t enough to swear you off milk, there are a few other scientific findings worth noting. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently asked the UDSA to look into the scientific basis of the claims made in the “milk mustache” ads. Their panel of scientists stated the truth clearly:
• Milk doesn’t benefit sports performance.
• There’s no evidence that dairy is good for your bones or prevents osteoporosis — in fact, the animal protein it contains may help cause bone loss!
• Dairy is linked to prostate cancer.
• It’s full of saturated fat and is linked to heart disease.
• Dairy causes digestive problems for the 75 percent of people with lactose intolerance.
• Dairy aggravates irritable bowel syndrome.
Simply put, the FTC asked the dairy industry, “Got Proof?” — and the answer was NO!
Plus, dairy may contribute to even more health problems, like:
• Allergies (vi)
• Sinus problems
• Ear infections
• Type 1 diabetes (vii)
• Chronic constipation (viii)
• Anemia (in children)”
This article is also a really thorough explanation of how we aren’t naturally designed to eat meat/animal products. It’s definitely much more logical (and environmentally and economically friendly) to go straight to the source and eat plant foods, rather than feeding massive amounts of plant foods to an animal only to get a fraction of the amount of food we put into that animal which ends up killing us anyway. Animal products are quite possibly the most illogical concept ever when you think about it. You know, even if you ignore the fact that they are produced through enslavement, rape, murder, and excessive violence onto so many completely innocent and docile animals.
It sucks there are people who are ignorant and apathetic enough to not give two shits about oppressing those less powerful than themselves, but sometimes you do have to throw this kind of stuff in their face to get them to realize that they are dead fucking wrong no matter which way you look at it.
Dairy…
“The very saddest sound in all my memory was burned into my awareness at age five on my uncle’s dairy farm in Wisconsin. A cow had given birth to a beautiful male calf. The mother was allowed to nurse her calf but for a single night. On the second day after birth, my uncle took the calf from the mother and placed him in the veal pen in the barn - only ten yards away, in plain view of the mother. The mother cow could see her infant, smell him, hear him, but could not touch him, comfort him, or nurse him. The heartrending bellows that she poured forth - minute after minute, hour after hour, for five long days - were excruciating to listen to. They are the most poignant and painful auditory memories I carry in my brain.” -Dr. Michael Klaper
For the full story and information about dairy farms, human dairy consumption, etc, go here: Vegan Peace.
kaya-nyc asked: Dude, you have so much hate in you. You need to relax a bit and stop getting all defensive over the fact that I enjoy eating cheese. You're just as bad as pro-life and religious freaks. I respect your lifestyle (my parents and closest friends are vegan too) but god-damn, let me eat my fucking cheese.
Full of hate? Defensive? What was hateful or defensive at all about a single thing that I said? All I’m trying to do is get you to realize that vegetarianism is still incredibly detrimental to animals. If that’s at all part of why you’re a vegetarian, then I’d suggest looking into it. I was a vegetarian for years because I never understood why dairy and egg production are just as cruel as meat production.
You are the one who immediately jumped to calling me an asshole, a fat bitch, said “fuck you man,” and called me a piece of shit. I’d say you’re the one that needs to calm the hell down and start thinking with a rational mindset instead of jumping to calling me a slur of names when I’m simply just giving you information you don’t want to hear because it challenges what you’ve been told all your life was okay.
Anti-choicers don’t use facts to scare people away from abortion rights, they warp information and hold the life of a clump of cell as of more importance than a sentient pregnant person. Not the same at all. Religious people attempt to promote their beliefs which are not at all based on fact or solid evidence, which is also not at all the same as informing people of real things happening that you could witness first hand if you walked onto any dairy farm. Or you can watch any of these to see exactly what I described to you: Ohio veal investigation | Texas dairy calf “disposal” methods | Ohio dairy farm footage | Mercy for Animals dairy calf rescue
You say you’ve been a vegetarian since birth and claim that somehow makes you better than those of us who weren’t, but then realized the error of our ways and changed our lifestyles accordingly to live more compassionately. I assume that means you didn’t choose your vegetarianism, but rather that’s just what your parents chose to raise you as. Now, what takes more personal willpower and ethical consideration — doing something you’ve simply been raised to do all of your life and never thinking twice about it; or thinking for yourself, taking in evidence when presented to you, and changing lifelong habits when you realized they weren’t as ethical as you thought? Right now, you are being given a viewpoint that challenges your ethics. If you’re truly as good of a person as you’re claiming, why wouldn’t you at least consider what I’m saying to you rather than calling me an asshole and ignoring what I’m saying?
Saying “let me eat my fucking cheese” is no different than saying “let me eat my fucking steak.” I assume as a vegetarian you probably think it’s ridiculous when someone says that about meat (if you’re in it for animal rights reasons). If I “let” someone eat either of these things, someone else is being tortured and abused for something they don’t even need. So why would I want to allow others to do things which are oppressing and abusing others? It’s no longer just a personal choice, because your choice to eat cheese is going to cause extreme pain and misery onto somebody else.
