Maneka Gandhi
Peta, the American animal welfare organisation, has an office in Mumbai. They have put together a report called Inside the Indian Dairy Industry: A Report on the Abuse of Cows and Buffaloes Exploited for Milk. It is a very true picture – understated, if anything. India has the largest dairy industry in the world. Millions of cattle in India lead miserable lives. Each one of you who drinks this rubbish called milk just because your parents told you to – and their parents told them, is part of this cruelty and should read the report. Here are the portions that deal with dairies: Just like cats, dogs and humans, cows and buffaloes are individuals: bright, slow, bold, adventurous, shy, friendly, considerate or bossy.
They remember things for a long time. They develop friendships over time, hold grudges against cows who treat them badly, form social hierarchies within their herds and choose leaders based on intelligence. They are emotionally complex as well and worry about the future. They can not only figure out problems but, like humans, enjoy the intellectual challenge and get excited – kicking up their heels when they find a solution. As with all animals, they do not want to be separated from their families and do not want to die. When they are separated from their families or friends, cows grieve over the loss, becoming visibly distressed after even a brief separation.
The mother-calf bond is particularly strong, and there are countless reports of mother cows that continue to frantically call and search for their babies after the calves have been taken away and sold. Cows – like all mammals, including humans – produce milk only when they are nurturing their young. Therefore, cows raised for milk are made to give birth every year. Cows are both lactating and pregnant for at least seven months each year.
Today, more and more cows and buffaloes in India are milked by machines. The machines tend to take more milk out of the cows than the amount they would yield naturally and easily. Workers often do not pay attention while the machines are on; even after milk has been taken out, the machines often keep sucking the animals’ dry udders, causing them a lot of pain. Most cows raised for the dairy industry are confined to tiny spaces not able to nurse their own babies. They are treated like milk-producing machines and are given large doses of hormones that cause them to produce unnaturally large quantities of milk.
Oxytocin, a Schedule H drug is injected to bring out milk faster, even though its use is illegal. The drug makes cows suffer severe cramps that feel like labour pains. A report prepared by Dr RP Parashar, president of the DAV Research Society for Health, in a survey conducted in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, revealed that 82% dairies were using Oxytocin in Delhi. 68% from the cities around Delhi and 32% in the remote areas of Uttar Pradesh for milking cows and buffaloes. Usually after 5 to 6 months of conceiving, animals stop giving milk but cattle breeders continue milking the cattle three to four months more by injecting Oxytocin. One of the main reasons why India has become the world’s largest milk producer is the introduction of the technique of artificial insemination. Sperm is collected from males and artificially introduced into the female reproductive tract for the purpose of conception.
Cows are repeatedly impregnated. AI has to be performed by trained professionals, but schemes to take AI to small villages have exposed the animals to additional cruelty. Animals are treated by untrained quacks who neglect even the most basic of minimum standards. AI guns are never sterilised; syringes and needles are used numerous times on different animals without being sterilised. Doctors and compounders often shove their bare hands into animals’ uteri, causing cows immense pain and exposing them to potential infections. The cow is usually beaten into submission for the “doctors” to be able to perform AI.
The cow is forced into yearly pregnancies. After giving birth she is milked for 10 months but will be artificially inseminated during her third month so that she is milked even when she is pregnant. The load is so great that she starts breaking down body tissue to produce milk. The result is an illness called ketosis. There are thousands of illegal dairies, each of which has anywhere from 50 to 3,000 animals; each animal is forced to produce up to 14 kilos of milk per day. Most of the day the cow or buffalo is chained by her neck in a narrow stall wallowing in her own excrement. She gets mastitis because the hands that milk her are rough and usually unclean. She gets rumen acidosis from bad food and lameness from being unable to move normally. She is kept alive with antibiotics and hormones. Oxytocin weakens their bones prematurely. It dries out the animals so fast that they stop producing after three years. In Delhi’s major dairy area, there are no drainage facilities, there is no electricity and there is nowhere to dispose of dung. Empty ampoules of Oxytocin lie all over the place. Ten- to 15-day-old calves are tied away from their mothers. Buffaloes stand in foul-smelling slush that is several feet deep, and they suffer from skin infections, foot disease, tuberculosis and other illnesses. Hundreds of animals die in this mess each month. These deaths are often marked by high fever, bloated stomachs, breathing difficulties and frothing at the mouth for hours. Their carcasses are sold for beef and leather. Cows and buffaloes lose their calves almost immediately after birth. Male calves are tied up with ropes so short that they cannot lift their heads; in a desperate attempt to reach their mothers, the calves often strangle themselves. In Mumbai tabelas, male calves have their feet tied so they cannot try to go over to their mothers for milk and their mouths tied shut with ropes so they cannot cry out when they are hungry (so that the residents of buildings near the tabelas do not come to investigate why they hear the babies’ cries). These babies are left to die a slow, agonising death in a corner. Once or twice a week, a haath gaadi wala comes by and loads up the dead and dying bodies of the calves on cycle carriers in front of their helpless mothers and takes them to Deonar, where they are skinned for calf leather. More than half the calves are killed shortly after birth or sold to slaughterhouses for their meat. Even Dr Kurien, the former chair of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, admitted that each year in Mumbai, 80,000 calves are forcibly put to death. Female calves do not fare any better. They are allowed just a fraction of the milk that they need. Dairy owners allow babies to suckle for just a minute or two so milk from the mother cows can start flowing, and then the babies are taken away to small dark sheds and dairy staff take the rest. If they live, these babies replace their mothers as part of a never-ending cycle. PETA investigators witnessed calves on short iron chains left out in the sun and rain; Worker hitting cow’s faces as they tried to eat; kicking buffaloes to make them stand ; Injured cows who had difficulty standing, being struck with sticks or having their tails pulled; animals covered in their own faeces; buffaloes bleeding from their vaginas. You need to know the laws so that you can start patrolling the dairies in your town. Every person with more than five cattle must be registered with the veterinary department or a local authority specified by the state government. Every registration application must supply information about the number and types of animals to be kept, the size of the area in which they will be kept, flooring and ventilation, food and water, disinfection, drainage, waste disposal. No dairy can operate without a registration certificate which is only valid for 3 years.
Every unit has to be inspected by a veterinarian or public health officer of the town. If the premises are not properly maintained, the registration can be cancelled. Wherever milch cattle are kept, the owner must display a copy of Section 12 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which prohibits the use of phooka and doom dev. Cattle must be provided with proper shelter to protect animals from heat, cold and rain. Dairies must have a sufficient number of food and water troughs (PCA, Section 11). Under the Municipal Corporation Act 1954, tethering cattle on any public street in the city is prohibited. Such cattle may be confiscated under the Cattle Trespassing Act 1871.
Owners who leave their cattle to forage in rubbish dumps can be fined and jailed. Under the State Cow Preservation Act it is illegal to kill calves. Dairy owners who kill male calves may be fined, jailed or both and the dairy closed down. It is illegal to administer any injurious drugs to animals (PCA, Section 11) or to use injections of any kind to” improve” lactation (PCA, Section 12). Oxytocin cannot be given and the manufacturer, supplier and dairy can each be punished with a fine of Rs.1000 and up to two years in jail, and the animals may be confiscated. It is illegal to sell old, dry or sick dairy cattle for the purpose of slaughter (as per local cattle preservation acts). Offenders can be punished with a fine, a jail term or both. It is illegal to abandon old, dry or sick cattle (PCA, Section 11), The penalty is a fine and jail term. A dairy exists solely to produce profits and when animals are no longer considered profitable, they are disposed of. Each year 20% of dairy cows are illegally trucked to slaughter houses or let loose to starve, eat plastic and die. Unless you start patrolling the dairies, we can never change this cruelty.
(To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in)
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