Free From Harm - Uncle Robert, Why Don’t You Eat Cheese?

http://freefromharm.org/farm-animal-welfare/uncle-robert-why-dont-you-eat-cheese/

By Free From Harm | November 25, 2011

http://vimeo.com/animalsaustralia/dairy - Watch Here

When my 8-year-old niece asked me why I don’t eat cheese during our preparation for Thanksgiving dinner, I hesitated, but then told her that some day I would explain to her why. Part of me believes it is best for her mother to decide when and how to explain this. My hope for her is that she becomes part of a generation that learns the truth and is not raised in ignorance, told stories about the mythical Old McDonald’s Farm and the Happy Cows, only to then learn the truth in adulthood and filled with regret for not knowing sooner! When we were growing up, the truth about dairy cows was kept hidden from us, and from my parents as well. All we knew is that milk came from cows.

If my child were to ask me this questions, I would simply wait until I felt he or she was mature enough to understand and explain it this way:

Cows must be pregnant to lactate and produce milk. Babies are forcibly separated from their mothers on day 1. After nine months of carrying that baby, all that mother wants is to nurse that newborn, and instead she is denied this natural act. The mother mourns the loss of her babies for days and sometimes go mad and have to be put down. This happens for a cycle of 4-5 times until she can no longer lactate and then she is sent to slaughter. Half of her babies are male and are hauled away on transport trucks to auctions where they are sold to veal farmers and soon slaughtered for veal. The other females are born into the same servitude as their mothers. All this psychological / physical torment just so that we can use the cow’s mammary gland secretions for dairy products that are actually flooding our bodies with saturated fats and casein, (the animal protein linked to breast and prostate cancer), growth factors and naturally occurring hormones (all linked to cancer promotion). All this because we are told that we need the calcium from dairy products when in fact recent studies show that we only absorb a mere 30% of the calcium in cow’s milk. In green leafy vegetables we absorb 50 to 60% of the abundant calcium (which consequently would spare the animals this needless suffering).

The truth is, my child, we don’t need to go through an animal to get nutrients such as calcium. In fact all of those nutrients come from the soil and are more readily available to us in plants. ALL of them, including protein and calcium. SO enjoy and be grateful for the wonderful diversity of what the plant world bestows upon us!

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