Thursday, February 4, 2010

Got Milk? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry - ABC News

Got Milk? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry - ABC News 

At Pleasant Veiw Dairy, we strive to care for our animals in a humane and caring environment.  I personally don't know any farmer who mistreats his animals, even when tempers flare and you've heard the comment, "kick the dog", we don't abuse our animals in any way, shape, or form. 
It appears that unknowing farming families have hired "undercover people" who, for some reason or another, take measures to uncover anything that slightly resembles what a consumer might think of as "mistreatment".  Then these "employees" (undercover people)  just look for things to video tape that any uneducated consumer might not understand.  Instead of standing up for these animals, they expose the animals, and in the end laugh at the fact that they are somehow a celebrity in the eyes of uninformed people.  If PETA, HSUS, and Mercy for Animals were so concerned, then they should teach their hired "informants" (undercover people) to correct the alleged abuse (which they do not).
Let's look at the practice of tail docking.  Some dairy farmers used this practice.  Surely the cow didn't agree and so the practice was eliminated from the course of keeping the udder clean.  But why do we need to keep the udder clean, and is that the only reason dairy farmers did it?  The daily ritual of cleaning the udder to wipe away bedding materials (sand or newspapers, etc.) and possibly manure begins with a pre-dip, wipe, and hook up to the udder. In simple terms, we want to be sure that the udder is cleaned before we begin to milk the cow.  Think about it.  Another reason to dock a cow's tail is to eliminate the unpleasant surprise when a cow's tail (manure ridden or not) slaps you in the face, this usually happens when the switch (hairy end of the cow's tail) is there and the cow feels the need to swat at something.  It's not pretty!  So many farmers have gone to shaving the hairy end of the tail, therefore just eliminating the "wet slap".  :)
And how about de-horning.  This is the practice of removing horns or parts thereof from the head of a cow.  The most important reason for doing this is...SAFETY!  Cow's are large animals, and not all are "happy cows" all of the time.  Just recently a local man was "gorged" by a bovine.  He crawled to safety and a Life Flight helicopter had to take him to a hospital.  This is very serious, I do not know the condition of the man or his injuries, but he could have been killed. When cows or bulls are protective, they use what they have, and that can be horns.  To protect our workers, our other cattle, and ourselves, we de-horn.  This is done when they are young. 
I am not here to say that all farmers do it right-but I believe that 99.9% of farmers do!  This is our livlihood, this is where we raise our children.  We are good stewards of the land.  We are producers of your food and fiber, and we are happy to be supplying you with products that are nutritious, delicious and American made.