I’m not going to get involved with any of the claims made thus far, I’m just going to talk about what is actually happening in this picture, and why. It’s correct to say that this is very likely not a calf in a veal crate, but a calf separated while they develop their immune system, and so that the farmer can monitor things like food intake and volumes of waste, as indicators of good health. It isn’t at all naive to express concern about a calf being kept in a hutch though. They aren’t exactly large, they are kept there with very little stimulation or social interaction for weeks, at a time when they should be with their mothers.
The more important thing to consider is what happens to these calves after they get out of the hutches, because it isn’t the hutches that are the problem, it’s the entire process of breeding and exploiting these animals for profit. Keep in mind, these cows will be restrained and forcibly impregnated so that they will produce milk. Naturally, this milk is intended to feed their calves, however, in order to take her milk, farmers separate calves from their mothers shortly after birth, causing extreme distress and sometimes resulting in prolonged depressive states.
While these are female calves who will join their mother on the milk production line, we should still talk about what happens to their brothers. Male calves do not produce milk and are not considered profitable for meat production, so are often killed or sent for veal production. During the process of raising calves for veal they are often kept in tiny crates, which is what this person assumed was happening here- so let’s not pretend it was a completely ridiculous or outlandish thing to believe. Due to the close bond formed between cows and their offspring, it is common for the mothers of dairy calves to quite literally scream for their lost calves, sometimes for days at a time. Cows are put through this agonising process around three or four times, before they too are killed.
Just because the person responding to this made an error in identifying what they were seeing, it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing wrong with what is going on here. The cows in this picture are kept in this way because it is the most efficient way to get them to adulthood so that they can be exploited for profit. Nothing being done to these animals is in their own interests, it is all in the interests of breeding them, taking away their children and selling their milk. Keeping these animals alive and healthy is important, you’re right, but only so that we can profit from their bodies and their inevitable slaughter.
Some of you will know all of this already, and have just conveniently left out some of these truths in your explanation. Some of you won’t know any of it. Either way, you need to understand that when you look at this picture and see something cute, we see the exact opposite. We see something profoundly sad- an isolated moment of joy in a short life which will be lived entirely for the profit of others. This image first went viral three years ago. By now she has very likely been forcibly impregnated herself, and has had to mourn her own calves being taken from her. Nothing about this industry is “cute.”
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