I became vegan in 2002 largely owing to Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation and Gary Francione’s Introduction to Animal Rights. I do not think, however, that it is enough to simply live a quiet vegan lifestyle, for the animals, utterly voiceless and impotent, need us to advocate in their behalf.
I believe that the enslavement of animals for human use is immoral and should be abolished at once. All sentient beings have intrinsic worth; that is, they are ends unto themselves and have a singular natural right to be free from exploitation. Without that one right, all others are hollow. It is, admittedly, an extreme position, yet one which rational thought demands. Speciesism, at its core, is both intellectually flawed and morally untenable.
Are there any dairy companies that I can count on to be humane or is veganism the only true way to go?
Thanks for the comment, Noelle. While probably better to patronize the small family farm over its corporate competition, all dairy production necessarily involves cruelty and, ultimately, violence. In order to maintain milk flow, a dairy cow is trapped in a perpetual cycle of impregnation, pregnancy, and delivery. But since the milk is for us and not, as nature intended, for her baby, mother and child suffer (in what witnesses describe as heartrending) a forced and permanent separation, usually within 24 hours. Some calves (females) will become replacement producers, while others (males) are shipped to the notorious veal industry. There (especially in the U.S.), they will spend most of their short, miserable lives tethered in a tiny crate.
In the end, all, mothers and children alike, will be shackled, hoisted, and slashed at the slaughterhouse. The spent dairy cows, having endured multiple years of use and abuse (see Willet Dairy and Conklin Dairy) will only yield lower-grade hamburger meat.
Im doing a project for school, based on the movie “Food Inc.” My topic is that factory farming is harming the animal welfare and their health. I have all my back up information, but i need a counter argument. Is their any articles that you know of that defend the factories instead of the animals?
Susy, there really is no other side to the argument, and anyone who says differently has a vested financial interest in modern agribusiness. The methods employed are brutally cruel and I know of no greater detriment to a being’s health than death.