Just when I thought I knew all the common, standard industry
practices in dairy farming, I find something even more bizarre and cruel. The
sound in this video is said to be “turned off” since it is for “trade show
purposes” but one wonders if the sound of the cows confined to stalls and
having their udders torched would reveal how unpleasant this experience is for
the animals. The claim that the cows feel no pain from having a flame applied
to their sensitive udders is “udderly” ridiculous. We share the same kind
of pain receptors with cows and just as with us, the nipples are one of the
most sensitive areas of the body.
The video justifies the torching of cows’ udders as follows:
“The UdderSinge uses a low temperature flame passed 2-4″
below the udder and belly that removes hair quickly and painlessly. Removing
hair aids in creating a healthier cow by reducing the occurrence of mastitis in
the cow’s udder.
Mastitis is a painful disease that causes painful swelling
and infection in the udder and is potentially fatal for the cow. Removing udder
hair decreases somatic cell counts [blood cells] in milk thus making the
product safer for the consumer.”
Yet it is the relentless cycle of forced pregnancy and
lactation, and the unnaturally high rates of milk production, that cows in the
dairy industry are subjected to, combined with being “nursed” by harsh
mechanical equipment rather than their own babies, that causes mastitis to be
so pervasive.
Add this to the list of atrocities inflicted
on animals in the dairy industry: dehorning; tail-docking; spiked
nose-ringing; sexual violation and industry-approved
bestiality; separation of
families; slaughter of
young dairy cows when their milk production declines; and slaughter of calves: all
so we can steal the mothers’ milk of other animals when the only milk we ever
needed came from our own human mothers, and then we were weaned.
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