Veal And Dairy: Let’s Talk About It.
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Many people will not eat veal out of outrage, moral or otherwise, over the treatment of the baby cows. Other people recoil when they’re informed about what terrible things await a newborn calve whose destiny is a veal crate. The most often response is an enthusiastic “I will not eat veal ever again.” This response is common and just.
These same people, however, retreat from their position of indignation when they are further informed that without the dairy industry, the veal industry, in its current form, would not exist. All mammals (or most, I suppose there are exceptions), diary cows included, must necessarily be pregnant to lactate; therefore, babies and milk are indelibly tied together.
I often ask, “What do you believe happens to the baby cows?” They don’t know; I certainly didn’t for some time. So I tell them that the girl baby cows are generally reared for dairy production and then slaughter but the boys, well, they have two fates: The lucky ones (?) are allowed to die (it is cost efficient because they weren’t “designed” for us to eat them), but the unfortunates - and majority - are sold to veal producers. These “by-products” of the dairy industry are taken from their mothers - apparently mommy cow milk isn’t for baby cows but for humans, including adults, which is weird – , transported to meat peddlers, immobilized, kept anemic, and put in the dark for the vast majority of their pitiful and short lives. These infants don’t even have the chance to suckle; their mom can’t fulfill that totally innate desire to feed her baby. Tragic, just tragic, and totally unjustifiable. And it’s all made possible by the same people who provide the base products for our cheese pizza and ice cream.
With this knowledge, when these people who so adamantly challenge the veal industry withdraw from their stand and continue eating dairy (thus perpetuating the system), is it kind of like the following situation?
I live in pre-civil War America and I feel a moral rage inside me over the evil of slavery. I go to a pre-Civil War Target because I want to buy a shirt. I’m confronted with two options: cotton or polyester. Now, to be sure, the vast majority of the population, including my family and friends, wear cotton. Indeed, it’s a societal norm; a product of cultural conditioning. However, my friend just told me that cotton is mass produced on the backs of slave labor, that horrendous practice that I feel so adamantly is unethical.
But I really like cotton too. It feels great on my skin. I’ve grown to love these shirts, this fabric. It’s in a lot of the things I wear. It would, in fact, be a little strange, according to the general sentiment, if I didn’t buy the cotton shirt. But the other option – the polyester – works just as well. I mean sure, I don’t like it as much now because I’ve been conditioned in such a way that my taste for cotton mimics an addiction, but I could learn to like the other fabric just as much. (Re-conditioned, if you will.) A lot of other people have, and more and more people every day are changing their habits to better conform with justice.
So, I’m certainly not going to own a slave, or hang out with people who own them, and I’ll even fight for their rights, but…my horror only goes so far. And anyway, even if I live up to my own expectations (and morals), people will still have slaves. Right?
I ask myself then, “How can I have my eyes open to something and not act on it?” Should my taste for cotton overwhelm that sense of anger over what happens to those poor slaves? I mean just because everybody else does it, doesn’t make it right – just because I’ve always done it, doesn’t means it’s justified.
How can we have our eyes open to something and not act on it, indeed? Stepping out of the shadow of “what everybody else does” and going vegetarian is an excellent step. It’s a statement that we all should make to speak to this evil. Going vegan, well, that’s the moral baseline. Give up dairy (and eggs, etc.). Every glass of milk you drink is a baby cow that doesn’t get to know his mother. Not to mention the torture. Let’s let “I hate veal and won’t eat it” actually mean something.
Crossposted @ That Vegan Girl
There is absolutely something good about abstaining from veal. But take it a step further and abstain from dairy, too. It’s better for animals, your health, and the environment.
I can think of few animal-abuse industries that are more insidious than the dairy business. It’s true when you ask most people “what happens to the baby cows” they haven’t got a clue. I wonder how many kids (of all ages) would delight in an icecream cone if they new that day old calves were butchered like refuse? “Veal” cheese, milk and other pus-dairy products are loathsome. I dispise that the truth was hidden from me through all my “ethical” vegetarian years.
I fully understand your statement, “I despise that the truth was hidden from me through all my “ethical” vegetarian years” Bea. It is a useful way to begin a conversation with others, however.
I have never offered this analogy about the pre-Civil War situation before to those who tell me that they do not eat veal because of ethical reasons but they continue to eat dairy; however, I think it can be effective in the future.
~ Recent blog post: The issue of "unnecessary suffering" at http://www.not-quiteright.net/tvg ~
If they’d stay babies forever I’d want one as a pet. A fully grown cow wouldn’t fit in my yard lol. Why don’t they just raise them and use them for meat when they are adults? I mean people are always going to eat burgers. Meat is good, I just don’t think its right to eat a baby animal that has been torn away from its mother and has to live in a small enclosure for its short life. It just doesn’t seem fair… Now that I’m educated I am thinking about switching to soy. Hopefully theres nothing wrong with soy lol.