Don Bosco Development Society - DBDS Mumbai, INDIA

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HORROR TALES EMERGE FROM COW SHEDS

February 22, 2008: Your morning cuppa will never taste the same if you know how the milk, which lightens the brew, reaches your home. Some cattle sheds are so cramped that the cows cannot sit—they just about have enough space to stand. Not only that—cows and buffaloes are artificially impregnated so that they can produce milk most of the year. Bull calves, being of no use to the dairy industry, are left to die immediately after birth. Both the pining mother and the hungry calf are separated so that the bull calf doesn’t “waste’’ milk by drinking it. The life expectancy of the animals in the shed is only seven years, while their natural life span is 23 years.

Members of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an NGO fighting for animals, has brought out a report on the condition of cows and buffaloes in cattle sheds across the country. They held a press meet to show the scene of neglect at the sheds. Mumbai’s own tabelas in Goregaon did not come out clean as investigators found dead bull calves piled over each other in corners and ultimately taken to be skinned for the leather.

It started after the July 2005 floods in Mumbai when around 2,500 cattleheads drowned; the owners just left the helpless animals tied to their posts. The water rushed in, drowning them. Following the horrific incident, PETA decided to investigate the conditions at the cow sheds across the country. They went to around 350 sheds only to witness horror stories of torture and sheer neglect. In many cases, the cows and buffaloes were forced to sit on their own faeces, breathing ammonia gas, burning their eyes and lungs. The survey found that cows—who, like all female mammals, lactate only while nursing their calves—are forced to give birth every year so that they can keep producing milk throughout. They stay pregnant and lactating for at least seven months each year. Within three months of giving birth, the cows are made pregnant again, often through artificial insemination, the report released on Thursday, said. They are even milked while being pregnant and the mothers are not even given space to tend to their calves. (Times of India)

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