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Re: time to give up milk even in India?

From the Bhakti List Archives

mani • August 11, 2001 


[ Posted on behalf of Sri Asuri Bharath of Bangalore
   ]

Dear Sri Mani,
I greatly appreciated your posting . God bless you .
I have been interested in animal rights issues for long , and it
always disturbed me that the orthodoxy didnt seem concerned enough ,
apart from paying lip service to cows being sacred . I am happy that
you have created awareness on the subject .

I would like to add a few words on the cow issue and hope you will
post it on my behalf .  thanks .


The treatment of cows in India is in many ways worse than in the west
..cows are poorly fed , are subject to famine and drought , dont have
sufficient pasture , and are exposed to grazing infected with pesticide and
plastic garbage.while many families take affectionate care of their cows
practically none give them retirement benefits.(Normally the cow would
live for at least 20 years  .  Even if retirement benefits are given to
cows as some few people do , all males calves are sold as draught animals
where they have a lousy life for about 10 years and then as they go past their
prime are sold to the butchers.) .After the age of about 12 years when milk
yields begin to drop the cows are sold , they change two or three hands and
then the are put on the Death March . Due to laws in diff states
prohibiting slaughter, the cows actually suffer more .Either they are forced to
march often over a hundred  km to a state where slaughter is allowed
,without sufficient  water , or are piled into trucks where the often break
their legs due to crowding and injure each other with their horns . they are
not fed because that leads to them defecating at the slaughterhouse out of
stress and fear  ,and then they are butchered by the most painful
halal way where they die a slow bleeding death. They are not stunned before
slaughter , since that is supposed to be against halal.

All these cows are bred only to supply the demand for milk in the
first place. over 200 million of them .Unlike the west India does not breed
cattle for beef . Sothe primary responsibility for the suffering of these
cows is with consumers of milk. Since the year 2000 India overtook the USA as
the world's largest producer of milk. Beef and leather are only by
products of the dairy industry just like goat leather is a by product of the
mutton industry .Incidentally cows belonging to temples in Tamilnadu under
the HR&CE dept are auctioned to butchers as soon as the milk yield begins
to drop. The prev HRCE minister told poeple who volunteered to adopt the
cows that " if you care about the cows so much , participate  in the
auction and buy them." While it may be very difficult to give up milk and curds suddenly ,
one can at least reduce it gradually .Milk is not necessary for adults . any
ordinary balanced diet is sufficient . With growing children also one
can avoid milk but the diet has to be more carefully framed so as not to
affect the growth of the child .Mammals produce milk for their own young ,
not to feed adults of another species.Some of the largest mammals like
elephants , hippos and rhinos are vegans , and gorillas and chimps are primarily
vegetarians . So one can get strong on a vegan diet too .Adult vegans
over 50 may however need to take some calcium pills if they give up milk ,
to be on the safe side.

regards to all
Bharath Asuri alias    Asuri Venkatanarasimhan.






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