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Cattle on Factory Farms Cattle Raised for Beef · Cattle Raised for Dairy · Cattle Raised for Veal
Cattle are often treated like property instead of like animals with feelings. Most of them are branded, dehorned and castrated while they are still very young. They often feel terrible pain when these things are done to them. Cattle usually spend the last part of their lives in very cramped, dirty places called "feedlots." At feedlots, cattle are fed large amounts of unhealthy food that fattens them quickly so they can be killed for meat. Living in these places is not good for cattle and they often become sick, stressed out and unhappy. Cows often get scared, hurt and/or very ill when they travel on crowded trucks to stockyards or slaughterhouses. On these trips, cattle are not protected from bad weather and usually do not get rest, food or water. Some fall down and are accidentally hurt by other animals. Others even die before the end of the trip. Cattle suffer when they are killed for meat. They are supposed to be stunned at the slaughterhouse before they are killed, but sometimes this doesn't happen. As a result, many animals feel great pain when their lives are ended. Although most cattle could live to be 18-22 years old (some even live more than 25 years) they don't usually get to live that long. Most "beef" cattle are killed before they are two years old!
Cows do not make milk unless they are going to or have already had a new calf. Dairy cows must have new babies every year so farmers can make the dairy products people drink and eat. Sadly, dairy cows do not get to keep their calves. If calves stayed with their moms for weeks or months after they were born, they would drink some of the milk that farmers would rather sell. As a result, the babies are separated from their mothers very soon after they are born. Female calves are raised in small hutches on the dairy farm and eventually replace their mothers in the milking herd. Male calves are usually raised for beef or veal. Dairy cows now make way more milk than their babies would ever need in nature. In fact, most dairy farmers breed, feed, house and treat their cows in ways that make the animals produce more and more milk every year. Today's dairy cows work so hard to make milk that they often become sick and stressed out. Most dairy cows never get to graze in a pasture. Instead, they are raised in crowded, uncomfortable places called "dry lots," where they are forced to stay outside in dangerous weather and don't even have a nice place to lie down and rest. Other dairy cows are raised indoors on hard cement floors for their whole lives. The dairy industry is a huge source of downed animals. Every year, many cows become so sick or injured that they fall down on the farm, at the stockyard or at the slaughterhouse and are unable to get up. These animals suffer because people have to use chains, ropes or tractors to move their heavy bodies once they fall. Dairy cows often have part of their tails cut off by farmers, so that it is easier for people to milk them. They also have their horns cut off, usually without any medicine to help stop the pain. Although they can live more than 18 years, dairy cows are often killed for food by the time they are just 4 years old.
Veal calves cannot play and are kept apart from other calves. They never get the chance to exercise or spend time with other cows. The crates they live in are also very bare and boring. Veal calves kept in crates are very sickly. They become very stressed out from living in cramped spaces and are very weak because they aren't allowed to exercise. Veal calves are fed a poor, all-liquid diet that makes them sick. This terrible diet causes their flesh to stay pale, which is how people who eat veal like it. Calves would normally eat lots of leaves and grass. Not being able to eat these foods also causes them to feel unwell. Veal calves are very young when they are taken away from their mothers, loaded onto trucks and driven to veal farms. Very weak and tiny, many die along the way. Calves who live through their time at veal farms are also loaded onto trucks a second time and driven to the slaughterhouse. Because they have been tied up in small crates for several months, it is very hard for them to walk. Veal calves often become downed during these trips. At the slaughterhouse, calves are very hard to stun and often feel great pain when they are killed |
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Most cattle spend the first part of their lives on giant pastures,
where they forage for food and take care of themselves for months
or years. Out on the range, they have no protection from dangerous
weather and do not receive veterinary care.
Many people think that dairy cows are never harmed or killed because
all they do is give milk. But this is not true. Most dairy cows live
very unhappy lives. 
Veal calves are usually raised in tiny crates for their entire,
short lives (about 4-5 months). They are chained by the neck in these
crates and are unable to turn around, lie down comfortably, groom
themselves (eliminate comma) or stretch.