Dairy farming
A timeline of Animal Liberation’s campaigns to end dairy farming.
Animal Liberation has been at the forefront of exposing the realities of the dairy industry, from calf separation and deaths, to the killing of spent dairy cows. Below is a summary of our campaigns to date.
2019 Exposé:
Dairy is Scary Australia
Animal Liberation and leaked.com.au follow the paddock to plate process of the Dairy Industry in Australia to bring the second dairy exposé to dropdairy.com.au. With every dairy purchase, spare a moment to think about who the milk was intended for.
Featured is an exclusive look at inner-Melbourne abattoir, Cedar Meats. Cedar Meats is an award-winning, globally recognised and trusted company which produces “one of the most demanded product brands in the small stock industry.” In regards to animal welfare, Cedar Meats claims “Our employees involved in livestock handling are fully trained in all aspects of animal welfare. Cedar Meats as a company is regarded as the standard to which others should strive for in animal welfare principles.”
It is evident in this footage that Cedar Meats is conducting illegal stunning practices on these calves. The AMIC (Australian Meat Industry Council) regulations state that while using electrical prongs for stunning, all calves must be stunned for at least 3 seconds at 1 amp, and around the head only, to ensure unconsciousness. The prongs should also never penetrate the skin. This footage from Cedar Meats shows calves being stunned for less than a second in many instances, the prongs jabbed in the face, on the neck upside-down, and with the prongs penetrating the body.
2019 Exposé:
Backpacker exposes Australian Dairy Farm
“This is not the price I am willing to pay for milk or cheese”
Eva was a consumer of dairy products (whilst a lover of cows) and chose to work on a dairy farm to obtain her second year working Visa.
She was shocked to see the dark reality of the dairy industry. “In the end, calves are a waste product and these farmers do not care about their lives” she said.
This is some of the footage Eva captured and sent to Animal Liberation.
2016 Exposé:
Calf separation & the killing of calves
In 2016, Animal Liberation NSW joined with Animal Liberation TAS to expose the separation and killing of calves at Cressy / Tasmanian Quality Meats Abattoir.
The anonymous investigators reported that calves sucked on their fingers, other calves tails, and even penises, in a desperate search for milk.
Help us end this by dropping dairy today
Like humans, cows must give birth in order to produce milk. Calves compete with the dairy industry for this milk and are separated from their mothers within just hours of birth.
Unable to produce milk, male calves are considered “waste products” - over 700,000 male calves are sent to slaughter at five days of age, or as “veal” at 3 months, every year in Australia.
Cows have strong maternal instincts, and are known to bellow day and night, searching for their lost babies.
Dairy cows undergo a continuous cycle of forced impregnation, birthing, and separation from their calves, and being milked multiple times per day for several years until they succumb to exhaustion or disease, or are sent to slaughter once their production of milk slows.
Naturally, they can live for up to 20 years.
Studies have found strong links between dairy consumption and higher rates of bone fractures and osteoporosis, multiple types of cancers, Parkinson’s disease, type 1 diabetes and various autoimmune disorders. Milk sold to consumers often contains small amounts of faeces and pus.
Meanwhile, Australia’s dairy industry produces around 12% of our total greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for 10% of our water usage, needing 1,020 litres of water to produce just 1 litre of milk.