Animals
© Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

They Slaughter Pregnant Cows, Don’t They?

In late December, a pregnant cow named Brianna escaped from a truck bound for a slaughterhouse in Paterson, New Jersey—and people reacted with shock and disbelief. “Is it legal to slaughter a pregnant cow?” read an incredulous headline on the news website NJ.com. Yes, sadly, it’s not just legal but also commonplace, since cows used for dairy production—as Brianna was—are kept almost constantly pregnant.

Brianna’s story is reminiscent of Idabelle—another pregnant cow—who made the news years ago when she jumped off a boat bound for Venezuela and swam all the way across Virginia’s James River. Once she reached shore, she disappeared into the woods and managed to evade capture for several days.

Idabelle jumped ship on her way down the James River to a dairy in South America. She gave birth to her calf Jimmy on Jeanne Roush’s, our board member’s, farm. Written on back of print: 1989 “Idabel & Jimmy”

It’s no coincidence that both Idabelle and Brianna were pregnant. Cows on dairy farms are repeatedly impregnated, year after year, in order to maximize their milk production. They’re artificially inseminated using a violent method in which farmers jam an arm into the cows’ rectums in order to locate and position the uterus and then inject sperm into their vaginas as the immobilized animals cry out in protest. Essentially, they’re raped—over and over again—and forced to give birth to babies they will never get a chance to nurture.

These forced pregnancies can result in difficult births, as documented recently by PETA Asia on an Australian dairy farm. A painfully laboring cow named Tammy was subjected to a violent assault by farm workers involving a huge metal clamp that held her immobile as a mechanical “calf puller” was used to drag the baby out of her womb. Both mother and baby died without receiving any veterinary care.

Calves are usually torn away from their mothers within hours or days of birth so that humans can consume the milk—which nature intended for baby bovines, not primates. Not surprisingly, mother cows often do everything they can to prevent this separation. PETA Asia filmed cows chasing after trucks as their newborn calves were hauled away. On a dairy farm in Massachusetts, cows uttered such prolonged, agonizing cries when their calves were taken away that concerned neighbors called the police.

What becomes of the calves, the unwanted “byproducts” of the dairy industry? If they’re female, they’ll endure the same tragic fate as their mothers—repeatedly and forcibly impregnated then killed. Males are commonly confined for several months to crates or pens so small that they can’t take more than a step or two in any direction before being slaughtered for veal. Sick, injured or otherwise unwanted calves may be cruelly killed. PETA Asia’s eyewitness filmed a worker bludgeoning a calf with a hammer seven times. A worker callously commented, “Like, you can hit it again and again and again, bro.”

Cows are exploited for their milk until their production wanes—which usually occurs in less than five years. Then, they’re sent to slaughter like Brianna was, far short of their natural 20-year life expectancy. (Brianna is estimated to be just over 2 years old.) Their bodies are ground up for cheap hamburgers, and their skin is tanned for shoes, handbags and car upholstery.

But Brianna caught a lucky break: Thanks to the intervention of Skylands Animal Sanctuary & Rescue, she was saved and sent to its facility in Wantage, New Jersey, where she gave birth to a healthy female calf named Winter. Idabelle was also one of the lucky few. After she was recaptured, PETA won custody of her and sent her to a vegan farm, where she lived out her days with her son, Jimmy. Both Brianna and Idabelle got the chance to spend every day with their babies—something that cows on typical dairy farms never get to do.

If tearing families apart and sending pregnant animals to their death sounds appalling to you, why not make the compassionate decision to defend cows like Brianna and Idabelle every time you prepare a meal? By refusing to consume cow’s milk or body parts, you can make a powerful statement against the dairy industry’s mockery of motherhood.