#veal crates were terrible

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Hello!

When I googled ​“veal crate” the same type of enclosure pops up as the pictures of calf hutches that were in your post, so I’m wondering what is the difference between veal crate and calf hutches? Is there a difference?

Hey Anon! You’re right, googling veal crates mostly turns up pictures of dairy calf hutches. A traditional “veal crate” was designed to restrict movement as much as possible, to ensure extra tender meat, and would restrain the calf’s head.

You’ll notice that basically every picture you can find of a true veal crate looks like it was taken on a Polaroid. That’s because they haven’t been in use for years now. Modern veal operations raise calves in group pens.

#veal crates were terrible #that’s why they’re no longer in use #ara groups would have you believe otherwise #cows #dairy cows #veal calves #animal welfare #animal agriculture #answered asks #anonymous

[severelynerdysheep]

The dairy industry = The veal industry!

 All calves raised for veal worldwide are male calves that are by-products of the dairy industry and in many countries such as the USA, veal crates are still the predominant rearing system. 

These tiny veal crates are so narrow that the calves cannot turn around for most of their lives, depriving them of exercise and preventing normal muscle development – to keep their flesh “supple”. They are also fed an iron-deficient diet to produce the anemic ‘white’ veal prized by gourmets. Calves kept in these conditions suffer from high incidences of infectious disease and develop stereotyped behavior patterns such as tongue rolling, crate-licking or mutual tongue sucking. Veal crates were banned in the EU in 2007 but veal production (within any rearing system) still requires calves to be separated from their mothers within a day of birth. These calves are then placed in pens or hutches, alone or with several other calves, before they are sold to be reared mostly as ‘rose veal’. They are then slaughtered at around six months of age, although some may be older. The UK also exports calves to the EU to be raised for veal.

If you buy milk you are supporting many cruelties, one of these is the veal industry. 

~ Viva: Veal

~ From CIWF

~ More info on dairy industry!

~ Here’s a link to testimonials of former dairy farmers. A quote from a former dairy farmer I found incredibly powerful is “It is a deceptive place. Only the ones who are inside really know that. I am not talking about a one hour visit to the farm… Whoever is really inside, knows what kind of place it is. It’s hell. There is terrible suffering there… The screams of the mothers … I still hear the sound. It won’t go away. I keep thinking about it. Today I am a mother, and I don’t understand how people who say that they love animals don’t see it. Don’t understand it.” and “And they cried and called for their babies. They call and call.“ And a fab piece on a former dairy farmer who amazingly turned his farm into a sanctuary and is now a plant-based farmer (here).

~ We know the early separation of cow and calf has long-term effects on social behavior.  Another study on the forced separation of calves and their mothers (here) and one (here) and (here) and (here)

#milk #dairy #vegitarian #meat #calves #veal #veal industry #animal agriculture

[drferox]

20 Questions with Dr Ferox #17

Time for another post of 20 questions and comments I’ve been asked recently. I’m not sure how well the tagging system is working at the moment, so if you’re waiting for a question to be answered I’d recommend checking manually.

@Its-janeway-or-the-highway said: For other useful bits of strine see also: Spitting the biscuit: throwing a tantrum out of sheer frustration, Bitzer: a dog that is of mixed, unknown origin (bits of this, bits of that), blood worth bottling: someone who is such an excellent individual their blood is worth bottling, such as Dr Ferox. I think your Aussie followers could have a field day with this subject.

We probably could, but the lingo also varies from state to state. For example, I didn't know for the longest time that 'Freckle' is also slang for 'anus', which gives a whole new meaning to “wouldn't give a fat rat's freckle” (means I couldn't care less)

Anonymous said: Guinea pigs or Hamsters? Which one is your fav?

I have been asked about hamsters several times, so I say it again. Never seen one. They're not available as pets in Australia.

Anonymous said: Can you tell us more about the issue of cropping and docking dogs ears and tails? Or if you know some good sites to read up on this info, where I might be able to read more about it? Thank you!

We're talked about it before on this blog. There's a handy dandy search function you can use as there's lots of posts that are worth a read, including those tagged with docking and cropping.

Anonymous said: As a Brit, and largely thanks to our celebrity chefs who like to advocate for ethical and sustainable meat-eating practices, I know that our welfare standards for veal calves are better than Europe at large, and also that, thanks to that preconceived notion of milk fed calves locked in a tiny crate, Brits are too horrified to eat veal at all. I wish people knew properly sourced British veal was much more ethical than exporting or simply shooting a male calf at birth :/ I'd support it if I could!

In Australia, a 'veal calf' is just a steer that hasn't been weaned yet, usually 200+kg, so is still being fed by its mother. Then they have one very bad day where they're 'weaned' and slaughtered on the same day, which isn't all that much worse than regular beef, in context.

Anonymous said: My cat passed away from kidney failure earlier this year. He'd been diagnosed very young but last year the vet decided to give him an ultrasound because he was curious and found out that his kidneys were terribly misshapen. He believed they had been like that since birth, and that his kidney function had always been compromised. I decided to cremate his remains, but now I am thinking that over again. Is it weird to tell a vet that they can keep organs as a teaching specimen if they want to?

Yes it's weird, but it's also very welcome if that vet has any connections with a university or teaches students. After death arrangements are a highly personal choice, and I wouldn't judge anyone for the choices they make. Keeping organs as specimens is a difficult conversation for a clinician to have.

Anonymous said: QT: came for mythical animals, stayed for the stories. Question: my dog will sometimes get his ear (not very long, and soft/semi-floppy) flipped/stuck inside out when he rolls around on the sofa cushions (which he loves to do). I flip them back by petting along the ear (it's super easy and there's no resistance, physical or behavioral) but I'm curious: does it hurt? It looks like it should. He doesn't seem to mind, but I don't know if that's just because he knows he can't fix it without help.

It probably causes no pain at all. And I dare say he could flip them back himself by shaking his head, most dogs can.

Anonymous said: What's your opinion on heated cat beds? Worth it if it's an older arthritic cat? Useless? Just curious. Also, Question Tax: Came here for the stories, stayed because I'm an aspiring avian vet.

Cats certainly enjoy them in the colder weather. I don't really like leaving the electrical ones with cords on while they're unsupervised, in case they get chewed or urinated on, and personally prefer the microwavable ones for that purpose. Care should be taken with cats that have mobility concerns to ensure they don't overheat.

Anonymous said: What is your opinion on cats eating bugs? If there is a fly in the house or a silverfish, basically anything non-threatening I can identify, I let my cats get it. However I am increasingly worried about spiders since I can't really identify them beyond daddy long legs and black widows (the only deadly type in my area) and even not so dangerous ones can have pretty painful bites. For the tax: what dinosaur would you have most liked to be a vet for?

Good luck trying to stop them from eating the bugs. I haven't figured out how to stop my boys from eating any bugs they catch.

@bighugmug said: Those capsule backpacks for cats are cute, but they look quite confined! Is there a vet opinion on how comfortable these are for kitty?

I don't know, and it probably depends on the cat. Cat's are not that bothered by being confined in transport, most cats like a box, and they tend to like a good vantage point to survey their surrounds, but it's not a carrier I see a lot of and I imagine would take some getting used to.

Anonymous said: If an animal is overstimulated and/or overly energetic, are they self-aware enough to try and calm themselves down?

Probably not.

Anonymous said: QT: I was actually sent one of your posts on euthanasia by a friend just after I'd had to put my 16yr old cat down & it really helped, so I followed! Anyway: my (~3yr old, 50lb, unknown mix breed) dog is friendly but cries literally continuously at the vet (& ONLY there), to the point that they told us they had to give him a treat to distract him long enough for them to hear his heart beat. How big a problem is something like this? Any stress reduction techniques you'd recommend?

Sounds like positive reinforcement with treats is probably the way to go. Short, consistent training sessions of 'happy vet visits' that allow your dog to associate the vet clinic with wonderful treats should make him feel more positive about the experience.

Anonymous said: feel free not to get to this for a while! i know your inbox must be bursting. i'm just wondering how preventable you think a urinary blockage in male cats is? mine doesn't have one but for some reason i am SUPER PARANOID about him getting one and i wanna do everything in my power to prevent it

I'm super paranoid about it too. Spending Friday night trying to catheterize a tiny, slippery cat penis is not my idea of fun, especially if it ends up being my own cat. Keeping them active and at a healthy weight is the single most important thing you can do to reduce their risk.

Anonymous said: I really hate to bother you, but I was wondering if tumors in a dog's anal glands is very serious. I recently took my dog to the vet for an unrelated reason and she told me that when she went to express his glands, she wasn't able to express anything and the glands felt very hard. She believes that it's either due to scaring or a tumor. If it is a tumor, the surgery is too expensive for me to ever afford. Will my dog be in pain without surgery? Could this be life threatening?

Unfortunately anal gland tumors usually are life threatening, and usually diagnosed too late to prevent spreading to the sublumbar lymph nodes. Malignant anal gland tumors will eventually make the dog sick, and as they grow they may prevent the dog from being able to defecate. You should discuss this with your vet.

Anonymous said: What are your thoughts on when to spay a bitch? We had a German Shepherd who passed away last year of hemangiosarcoma. We always wonder if this cancer was accelerated by the fact she was taking oestrogen- due to being incontinent- which we wondered about being caused by her spay. She was spayed at 4/5months old. I just wondered if you could sum up the possible implications of a spay pre and post the first oestrus, particularly for German Shepherds, but really all dogs. Thank you!

She probably did not develop the haemangiosarcoma (HSarc) from taking oestrogen. She probably developed it because she is a German Shepherd and it's one of the things that they very commonly do. Desexing does increase the risk of certain rarer cancers like HSarc and lymphoma, but not desexing drastically increases the risk of mammary cancer and pyometra. If hip dysplasia is not an issue, I'd consider desexing between 9 and 18 months for a female large breed dog. I am still very pro desexing.

Delayed desexing has also been discussed here.

@animaljunkie said: I'm an American vet student who is seriously considering practicing in either Australia or Ireland. Would you have any advice on career choices or practicing outside your home country?

I've never practiced outside Australia, but I would check what the requirements are for your employment with the national or state vet registration board for your country of choice, and it's probably wise to chat to other expats before committing to that idea.

Anonymous said: Hi Dr. Ferox! My roommate keeps buying her cats different types of food, and I was wondering is this could be harmful to them? The brand stays consistent, but she tends to buy whichever type (senior, weight management, indoor, etc.) is on sale. The cats are ~1 year and 5 years. And she doesn't do the 'wean off one food and onto another' thing. (Question tax: I hc that you -all vets really- look at animals with a mix of "you're so adorable" and "so many things could go wrong with you") Thanks!

If it hasn't caused an issue yet, it probably wont. Most issues from sudden food changes are vomiting or diarrhoea, and I'm sure you'd notice if it was an issue. Some animals have tougher stomachs than others, some are exquisitely sensitive and can only stomach one flavour of one food without gastroenteritis.

And yes, there are so, so many things that can go wrong with every singe animal. When you're trained as a hammer it's hard not to see everything as a nail.

@2goldensnitches said: Doc, we've recently acquired a kitten. Sometimes he knows how to use the litterbox, sometimes he wants to eat the sand. Why?

The whole world is a toybox to a kitten. It's most likely just learning and playing, but I can't guarantee it doesn't have some sort of pica and you should check with your vet.

Anonymous said: What kind of information should a vet be expected to know before I consider seeking help elsewhere? I recently had an avian vet do a house call for some birds, and he seemed knowledgeable. He was detailed and came up with a treatment plan that suggested he knew what he was talking about. Then he said, "Nothing's using the lower part of the aviary. You could put some reptiles in here." Is that a huge red flag? It seemed very wrong to me, but maybe that sort of thing isn't in a vet's wheelhouse?

It might not be part of that vet's knowledge base, though it seems a really odd thing to say. I can't imagine what they were thinking. If you're satisfied with the treatment of your birds then don't feel like you have to change vets, unless you want to of course.

@knikna said:Non-vet question for a bit of fun! If you had the Doctor's Tardis and could travel anywhere in space and time in this universe, where would you go first?

I would chose to go see a Thylacine. Past or future, I don't care. That way I'm unlikely to stuff up any kind of time-space continuum, and my own microflora wont cause any sort of massacre.

Anonymous said: Hi I just wanted to let you know I've been laughing at the fact your cat's name is trash bag for about an hour. I hope you and trash bag have a wonderful day

See, I knew it was a funny name.

Trash Bag has recently learned about the whole new world under the blankets, and how wonderfully warm they are for snuggles.

#20 questions #blog housekeeping #veterinarian

[theconservativebrief]

This November, voters will get the chance to weigh in on some transformative new animal welfare laws at the state level. While these measures go well beyond any current requirements, they’re reasonably likely to pass. Voters tend to be more favorable toward animal welfare than legislators, and animal welfare laws have had some of their biggest successes at the ballot box.

Most Americans aren’t vegetarians or vegans, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t concerned with the welfare of animals. Nearly everyone consumes animals that are raised and killed on factory farms (over 99 percent of land animals raised for food are, so even “humane”-labeled food is typically factory-farmed). But even most meat-eating Americans are strongly opposed to the abuses that are commonplace in the industry. In a 2017 Ipsos/Sentience Institute poll, 49 percent of Americans supported a ban on factory farming, nearly 90 percent thought “farmed animals have roughly the same ability to feel pain and discomfort as humans,” and nearly 70 percent agreed that “the factory farming of animals is one of the most important social issues in the world today.”

Those sentiments might explain why new initiatives that protect animal welfare have had a striking success rate at the ballot box. Voters have banned gestation crates and battery cages in California and Massachusetts, limited puppy mills in Missouri, and restricted the sale of ivory and animal parts in Oregon and Washington.

Meanwhile, legislatures have tended to push the other way. Six state legislatures have banned undercover investigations of factory farms, Iowa passed a law requiring grocers to sell caged eggs, and the federal government is contemplating restrictions on clean meat (which is produced without slaughtering animals). H.R. 6720, which prohibits the sale and slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption, is stalled. H.R. 4691, which closes a loophole that lets breeders with a revoked license keep breeding animals, is languishing in a committee. The last major federal bill targeting farm animal welfare was introduced in 2010, and it never passed.

So laws improving conditions for animals are likely to need a direct referendum to have much chance of success. There are a couple up for consideration this year. We talked with Sentient Media, the Open Philanthropy Project Farm Animal Welfare Newsletter, and the Humane Society of the United States about which ones to look out for.

Proposition 12 would establish new cage-free housing requirements for baby veal calves, mother pigs, and egg-laying hens. This isn’t the first time that issue has been in front of California voters. In 2008, voters approved Proposition 2, which required space for farm animals to “lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely.” Industrial agriculture promptly settled on a very conservative interpretation of “freely,” and animals remained tightly confined. Proposition 12 leaves less room for interpretation, specifying the number of square feet needed for each animal.

Millions of animals are raised and slaughtered annually on factory farms in California. Even more animals would be affected, since the new requirements apply to any farmer who wants to sell animal products within California. As a result, the new requirements would have an impact across the country and could potentially affect tens of millions of animals. That said, PETA is opposed, objecting that the bill doesn’t allow hens enough space — only one square foot — and that it has a long phase-in period.

When I talked with Josh Balk at the Humane Society of the United States, he rejected that. “No city, state, province, or country in the world has mandated animal protections this strict,” Balk said. And California is not just any state, but an economic and agricultural powerhouse with a high population. “The world’s fifth-largest economy banning the sale of meat and eggs from caged animals is going to have a tremendous impact,” he told me. The Humane Society joins the ASPCA, the Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club, and Earth Justice in endorsing the bill. The Association of California Egg Farmers and the National Pork Producers Council are opposed.

At the Open Philanthropy Project, which researches the highest-impact interventions for global problems, farm animal welfare program officer Lewis Bollard came out strongly in favor of Proposition 12:

This would directly improve the welfare of about 40M layer hens, 700K pregnant sows, and 100K veal calves each year. It would force companies to start implementing the crate-free and cage-free promises they’ve made in recent years. And it would remind politicians that, when Americans get a choice, they vote to protect farm animals.

In 40 US states, commercial dog racing is prohibited. Florida is one of the six that still have active dog-racing facilities, which often involve terrible conditions for the dogs. It’s been estimated that a dog dies on Florida’s racetracks every three days. Amendment 13 would end commercial dog races by the end of 2020.

The vast majority of animals in Florida are on factory farms, not dog-racing facilities, so the direct impact of this bill would be fairly small. Animal advocates, though, have often found that smaller reforms to an industry — for example, prohibiting dog fighting, horse slaughter for meat, and circuses — get people thinking about the overall cause and can lead to larger reforms later.

Opponents of the Florida bill were concerned about momentum toward general animal rights too, and appealed to the Florida Supreme Court to strike the proposition from the ballot, objecting that the statement in it — “the humane treatment of animals is a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida” — might set an inappropriate precedent. In a 6-1 decision, the Florida Supreme Court concluded that voters can consider the bill.

The impact of campaigns like the Florida and California ballot initiatives is often larger than the immediate effects. Successful campaigns can directly advance the interests of animals. They also remind legislators that this is an issue of interest to voters. Sometimes — as occurred this year in an Ohio resolution banning puppy mills — opponents of reforms come to the table in advance of a statewide initiative in order to avoid losing a direct vote. Legislators may be much less interested in animal welfare than the public, but referendums mean they can’t get too far behind the times.

Original Source -> California and Florida voters could change the lives of millions of animals

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

[jamescoopz]

5th post comes from @kerritanya ・・・ You can't imagine not eating cheese? You are literally stealing food from a baby....cow's milk is for baby cows. In the dairy industry they are removed from their mothers shortly after birth, just so that you can eat cheese and other dairy products. Cows do not "need" to be milked, it's not some magical free flowing liquid, they do not produce milk unless they have a baby. So in the dairy industry they are artificially inseminated then their babies are taken from them, because otherwise the babies would drink the milk, but that is to make cheese for you. If left naturally their babies would be suckling from them, so no need to be milked, they have also been bred to have oversized udders. Calves do not need to be bottle fed to get the nutrients they need, think about it....obviously they could just get these nutrients from mum ....if they were allowed to feed from her, this is an excuse by the dairy industry, as really they are not allowing them to feed from mum, so they are pretending there is a reason they bottle feed. Male calves are kept in crates and killed for veal, female calves will grow up to be milk machines. After about 5 years of being milked they are sent to slaughter.....a cow would normally live until 25 years. Even worse than the meat industry. Your taste buds are not worth this pain, torture and suffering. Not to mention dairy is bad for your health and is terrible for the environment. Plus it contains pus cells, faeces, hormones and antibiotics. I used to eat dairy and love it, when I realised the cruelty I stopped immediately, now my tastebuds have changed it smells disgusting to me. Not to mention the fact that you can get ice cream, milk, cheese etc made from plants that causes no torture, is better for the environment and your health. Farmers change to plant milks or crops, stop being in denial, the future is changing, be on the right side of history. #februdairy #Dairy #DairyFree #GoVegan #Compassion #Love #CrueltyFree #Awakening #AnimalRights #WakeUp #Peace #Cow #Cows #febudairy #shoutaboutdairy #legendairy #legendairymilk #fuckudairy #cowmilk #sheepmilk #goatmilk #dairyisscary #dairycow #vegan (at Highgate)

#crueltyfree #febudairy #compassion #animalrights #dairycow #dairy #peace #govegan #legendairy #awakening #shoutaboutdairy #februdairy #dairyfree #vegan #wakeup #sheepmilk #dairyisscary #love #goatmilk #cow #cowmilk #fuckudairy #legendairymilk #cows

[jakeshoshspain]

WWOOFING!!

Our only main complaint about our WWOOFing experience was that it wasn’t long enough.

1) It was breath-takingly beautiful. The mountains were dramatic and mostly untouched, just sprinkled with tiny isolated ancient farm cottages a few miles up every other twist in the road. Then every 30-60 minutes you hit a tiny village packed tightly with a few dozen- a hundred or so traditional white houses and flower pots and hanging pork legs filling every crack. The town we stayed in was called Juviles (pronounced hugh-veal-ace, not jew-viles). It had a total population of 80 people, mostly of incredibly old people who have lived there for generations and generations and crazy cool ex-pats like our hosts.

2) Our hosts were awesome. Damian and Roki had just moved here from London, buying this large plot of land in the Sierra Nevada Mountains about a year ago. Damian still writes for some British publications but spends most of his time tending to his new land and many varieties of trees. Roki is a baker and makes incredible brick oven bread weekly, which she sells to all the people in the town and some in the neighboring towns. (It’s actually fascinating how she does it, the type she makes requires her to kneed the dough every 30 minutes for hours and hours: she starts at 7pm and finishes around 3am, then wakes up at 5 to start putting them in the oven.) Anyway, they were welcoming, made us feel right at home, easy to talk to, taught us a ton, and were always having fascinating conversations with us about all kinds of topics.

3) The work was really cool, kind of fun and often educational. The first few days solely consisted of nonstop olive picking, then we learned how to make soap, plant trees (with layers of different types of soil coverage), prune trees, distribute seeds, sow fields, feed chickens, etc. We had a large variety of jobs to keep things interesting, from cleaning out the chicken coop to deconstructing branches into different varieties of fire wood, to destroying a built-in brick/concrete section of their house they wanted to clear out.

4) BRUNO!! They had the best dog ever. She’s only a year old and has SO much energy. (Yes, she’s a female dog named Bruno, they didn’t check her gender before naming her so they decided she’s a progressive gender fluid dog.) She’d sprint laps around us as we worked and then periodically sprinted right into us to demand some pets and cuddles. By the end of the day she’d tire herself out so thoroughly she’d just come up to us and plop on our laps and pass out while I gave her some doggie massages. Day #2 of olive picking though she found some dead carcass to roll in and she literally smelled like death. That’s why Jake has his jacket over his nose in that picture.

So they had a beautiful house, built in the typical Andalucian mountain town style with incredibly thick white ceramic walls and Moorish tiles. Their property stretched about a football field or two down the mountain. The land has an impressive variety of old fruit, nut and olive trees Damian is working to resurrect and a ton more he’s begun planting. If I remember correctly he has apple trees, peaches, raspberries, pears, chili peppers, persimmon, pomegranates, apricots, lemons, tons of almonds, olives, I think green onions, tomatoes, radishes… honestly I can’t remember them all (the list goes on for a while). Then there’s a chicken coop with 5 or 6 chickens and two big fields we sowed and planted rye. They also have a fascinatingly intricate ancient irrigation system that they think was originally constructed maybe a thousand years ago! There’s a giant community water storage pool up hill from the town that’s connected through ceramic gutters to each household water storage pool. Each household is carefully allocated a specific amount of water; Damian explained there’s always intense commotion over people accusing others over taking more than their fair share, (it’s the town’s main source of drama). Apparently the mayor is taking advantage of her power and draining more of the pool than she’s allowed but no one wants to stand up to her because of her connections to other resources. Anyhow, they also have ceramic gutters branching from their personal water storage pool and stretching all throughout their property, which you can see in the first photo. (There’s also a water storage pool one of the photos, not theirs, just a neighbor’s that happened to be in the foreground of one of my drive-by snapshots of the sunset on the way home from olive picking.)

Anyway, the first few days of olives were pretty exciting. Most of the trees had been abandoned and in terrible shape the year before when Damian and Roki first moved in last year. So the amount of this year’s olive production after a year’s work of pruning and care was impressive. Really, I don’t think they were prepared for how productive their trees had become and tried to shove an harvest into only a few days. (They had an appointment to press the olives into olive oil on Wednesday, but waited until we got here on Sunday to start picking with us.) They had 2 big olive trees on a hill beside their patio, 5 or 6 mini ones I picked by hand nearby and 2 giant ones out into their property, slightly hanging off a mini-cliff and surrounded by stab-y bushes we got the first day. Then the second and third day we trekked out to this other patch of land they own a 20 minute drive down the mountain, which they haven’t really surveyed since they did some harvesting and a lot of pruning last year. There were at least 25 olive trees packed into this hilly thorny landscape, and most of them were filled with hundreds of big juicy, perfectly ripe olives. Then on the third day, Damian discovered a few more giant olive trees on the edge of his property that he didn’t even realize he had.

But it was also kind of exciting and fun to see how many olives were possible to pick in 3 days with 1 semi-experienced olive picker (who didn’t speak English) and 4 mostly first time olive-pickers. The more experienced olive picker was their friend Miguel who regularly joined us from his remote cottage a twisty 20-minute drive up the mountain from Juviles. The olive-picking technique we generally tried to use included positioning giant nets around the trees, and then using a few various methods to got the olives down. These included hand picking the lower branches, combing them off the branches just above our heads with a mini makeshift rake, and hitting the top branches really hard with a giant stick. I usually preferred the handpicking jobs while Jake enjoyed expressing all his inner anger whacking the top branches with all his might (it was as funny to watch as it sounds). Next, we’d pick out all the actual branches and leaves that also fell off during the whacking and raking before we’d pile the netted olives into a crate. But often this didn’t totally work according to plan because the olive trees were planted many years ago in places that don’t actually make any sense, like mid-steep hill and edges of mini cliffs. So you can imagine how creative we had to get positioning sufficient nets around those trees, with branches full of hundreds of juicy olives hanging over difficult to access ground. Also since it was Damian and Roki’s first year learning to prune olives trees, a lot of the branches were way too high up to reach, and many hung over giant painful weed bushes full of sharp burrs. Damian liked to declare, “No olive left behind!!” while Roki was more inclined to take a more laid-back let’s-just-get-what’s-reasonable, lets-not-hurt-ourselves tone (I think she was a little paranoid about over-working us).

I had a lot of fun though trying to make some ninja moves climbing high to reach and pull down some of the seemingly inaccessible branches. We picked olives from about 10am-5:30pm with a quick lunch break for 3 days. Whenever we closed our eyes all we could see was olives, olives, and olives. We filled their dozen or so crates so fast we had to borrow all of the neighbor’s crates, then use sacks and bags, getting creative about how we could even transport so many olives. In the end, we picked a total of 330 kilos of olives (727 lbs) which turned into 110 kilos (242 lbs) of olive oil. The oil was delicious, stronger and much more fragrant and flavorful than the olive oil I’m used to. They gave us some samples to take home so remind Jake and I to offer you some if you’re interested in trying it!

[severelynerdysheep]

Some quotes from some former “humane dairy” farmers:

“The experience of watching them leave, the mamas wailing for a week, and the absence of their souls in the pasture haunted me. I’ve cried so many times over this that he has tried to hide the fact he is doing it but I always knew because of the wailing that the momma cows do when they lose their babies and can’t find them.”

“The mother cow naturally horrified and distressed out of her mind, chases alongside the trailer, bellowing and calling to her baby, while the confused and terrified calf cries back to the mother.”

“It is a deceptive place. Only the ones who are inside really know that. I am not talking about a one hour visit to the farm… Whoever is really inside, knows what kind of place it is. It’s hell. There is terrible suffering there… The screams of the mothers … I still hear the sound. It won’t go away. I keep thinking about it. Today I am a mother, and I don’t understand how people who say that they love animals don’t see it. Don’t understand it.”

“I never realized until many years later that no matter how kind I felt I was to them, no matter how well I thought I cared for them, every single one of these animals was ultimately destined to meet the same fate. Sooner or later they would all end up on someone’s plate”

“ These innocent babies, who don’t ask to be born, are picked up by a truck at four days old and taken to their deaths. Bobby calves are animals who are quite literally born to die. The babies aren’t “needed,” but their mothers are required to give birth to them so that they will produce milk for the farmer. Their babies are then killed at the earliest convenience.”

“ I have no idea how many mothers and babies I put on the trailer to send them to slaughter. How many mothers were left without their babies. And they cried and called for their babies. They called and called. If someone would touch my daughter or my son… I don’t know what to say, just the thought of it frightens me. When I worked on the farm, I saw no problem with it. I burned out horns. I clipped nipples. I sent mothers and their babies to slaughter. I separated babies from their mothers. And somehow I saw nothing wrong with it.”

Some links:

~ Veal: All calves raised for veal worldwide are male calves that are by-products of the dairy industry. In many countries such as the USA veal crates are still the predominant rearing system. These tiny wooden crates are so narrow that the calves cannot turn around for most of their lives, depriving them of exercise and preventing normal muscle development – to keep their flesh “supple”. They are also fed an iron-deficient diet to produce the anemic ‘white’ veal prized by gourmets. Calves kept in these conditions suffer from high incidences of infectious disease and develop stereotyped behavior patterns such as tongue rolling, crate-licking or mutual tongue sucking. Veal crates were banned in the EU in 2007 but veal production (within any rearing system) still requires calves to be separated from their mothers within a day of birth. These calves are then placed in pens or hutches, alone or with several other calves, before they are sold to be reared mostly as ‘rose veal’. They are then slaughtered at around six months of age, although some may be older. The UK also exports calves to the EU to be raised for veal.

~  Some handy guides to milk meant for humans are (here) and (here) and (here) and (here) and (here) and another (here).

~ When it comes specifically to mother-calf bonds in cows, separation is incredibly detrimental and traumatic, as cows would naturally suckle their calves for nine months to a year after their long gestation period, just like other strongly maternal species, and the strong bond that is formed between mother and calf in the first few hours after birth makes this enforced separation a very traumatic experience. We also know the early separation of cow and calf has long-term effects on social behavior. Another study on forced separation of calves and their mothers (here) and one (here) and (here) and (here)

~ Info from a really fab UK charity Viva on the dairy industry! 

~ Here’s a link to other testimonials of former dairy farmers and a fab piece on a former dairy farmer who amazingly turned his farm into a sanctuary and is now a plant based farmer (here).

~ Land of hope and glory documentary

~ Dominion documentary

#dairy #milk #cheese #cows #farmers #farming #animal agriculture #animal exploitation