Cows are able to generate milk following the birth of a calf. Many dairy operators amputate the cows’ tails to prevent waste from contaminating milk products. Dairy Cattleĭairy cows commonly live in tie stalls, dry-lot pens, or free stalls, often standing in their own waste. Outside of these HACCP plans, much of the cattle-processing system is unregulated, with few controls to track cattle, ensure the safety of meat products beyond certain pathogens, or recall contaminated products that reach market shelves. Currently, the USDA enforces a system called the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Program (HACCP) where individual factories in the meat packing industry develop suitable safety standards and then the USDA oversees these standards. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) enacts regulations to enforce these acts. Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act to help regulate how factories produce and package meat. Most cattle eventually end up in slaughterhouses and packing plants. Because of the harsh living conditions, most feedlot operators place a low level of antibiotics in cattle feed to prevent infection. In addition, waste products often accumulate in the feedlots, produce noxious gases that harm the animals’ respiratory systems, and can contaminate nearby soil and ground water. Thirty-two percent of cattle raised for beef have severe liver abscesses upon slaughter, for example. The government, specifically the Bureau of Land Management, allows ranchers to graze cattle on public lands under the Taylor Grazing Act.įrom the range the cattle go to feedlots where they receive food designed to fatten them in a short time despite numerous health problems that the food often causes. Cattle on the range are like locusts if not properly managed, destroying grasses and depleting the soil. Their owners typically brand and castrate them sometimes they also remove the horns of the cattle. Most beef cattle spend their first months of life, sometimes their entire first year, on the range. There are also breeders who seek out cattle that satisfy the whims of the rodeo industry. People breed cows for different uses, thus ranchers of beef cattle breed their cattle to optimize meat production while dairy farmers breed cows to maximize milk production. These accepted husbandry procedures rarely, if ever, require animal handlers to use painkillers during these painful procedures. These “humane” standards allow cattle handlers to remove horns and tails from cows, castrate the male cattle, and brand cattle. State legislators usually exempt cattle from animal cruelty laws or codify the industry’s husbandry standards into law. Industries that use cattle for food (meat and dairy), leather, manufacturing products, and as work-farm animals commonly define what constitutes humane husbandry. Prior to slaughter, many cows succumb to diseases contracted because of unsanitary conditions, stress induced by confined quarters, malnourishment, and/or the harsh nature of constant milking, exposure to the elements, or other various unhealthy practices. In 2014, about 1 in 3 cows had their tails docked in the U.S., according to a USDA survey published in 2018.The United States dairy and meat industries claim over 41 million cow lives per year. The practice seems to be on the decline, though far from eradicated. Over the past decade, however, North American animal advocates have found allies in industry-friendly groups that have opposed tail docking, including veterinarian associations and the U.S.-based National Milk Producers Federation. states, but a 2010 study found that 69 percent of dairies in the U.S. The procedure has been banned in many countries, and some U.S. Tail docking is another painful amputation that cows often endure without anesthetic. Another third of cows’ tails were docked before they gave birth. docked the tails of their calves in a 2008 study. If she does get to go outside, it may be in a dry lot where the ground hurts her hooves.īy six months old, slightly more than half of the dairy farms in the U.S. The grains can also give her stomach problems. The grain makes her grow faster, but it may be too fast for her bones to support her body. She’s probably eating too much grain, and not enough grass. At six months old, Clover is probably living with other calves indoors.
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