Farm Cow Mistreatment Facts

Animal cruelty is something that bothers many people, and unfortunately you can't be very sure of the things you hear. You may have heard that chickens, cows, pigs and other farm animals are abused to horrifying extremes, but with media that blow things out of proportion and extremist groups claiming outlandish things it's hard to know what to believe. The best way to be sure is to get your facts from a verifiable, reliable source.

  1. Feeding

    • A cow's natural way to eat is to graze--in fact the grazing process takes up a large amount of the cow's daily life. On factory farms, these animals are more than often fed only once or twice daily. This can often result in stereotypies, behaviors tied to a psychological disorder believed to be caused by the cow's frustration at its inability to graze. This disorder causes repeated oral behaviors such as biting and licking stable equipment. Stereotypies is just the beginning, these cows often suffer from many other illnesses such as rumen acidosis, laminitis and ketosis because of improper feeding.

    Breeding

    • Another natural cycle that careless farmers do not keep intact is the birth cycle. Not only are dairy farmers inbreeding their cows, but they are also using in vitro fertilization (IVF) on the animals. One of the more disturbing results of this practice is called "large offspring syndrome" and occurs when the IVF embryos grow faster than they should, resulting in increased birth weight and risk for the mother and her calf.

    Housing

    • Farms in America are notorious for keeping animals in unsafe, restricting conditions, but cows get some of the worst treatment. Naturally, cows spend their day wandering fields, grazing and moving along slowly. According to the Humane Society of the United States, in 2006 only about 10 percent of lactating cows were kept in pastures such as this, the remaining 90 percent usually confined in tight cramped indoor stalls. Beyond that, almost 50 percent of operations reported using tie stalls for most of the cow's lactating period--meaning the animals were all tied by the neck to a specific area, with no freedom whatsoever to move about.

    Hormones

    • The hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin, or rBST, is a genetically engineered hormone used to an alarming excess. The hormone is designed to increase milk yield. According to a 2006-2007 study conducted by the Department of Agriculture on American dairy farms, approximately one out of every six cows has been repeatedly injected with rBST. RBST is believed to be the cause of many cows' reproductive issues as well as lameness and other illnesses.

    Docking

    • Tail docking is a common practice among farmers and consists of removing the bottom 2/3 of the cow's tail. It is said that this procedure is done to help keep the udders as well as milking areas clean; however, these claims have never been scientifically proved. Still, though, according to the Department of Agriculture in a 2001 survey, one out of every six farmers docks his entire herd. Docking is seen to cause the cows great distress during fly season, and the procedure is often carried out fully without any anesthetic or pain medication.