Most people think of dairy farming as relatively harmless, but the effects of factory farming are horrendous even there. Dairy cows, who naturally live for up to 20 years, are used up by factory farms in an average of five to six years, and then sent to slaughter when their milk production declines.

Less widely understood, however, is the link between the dairy industry and veal (the meat of calves). In order to keep cows producing milk, they, like humans, must give birth regularly, sometimes as often as once a year. The cows are rarely allowed to nurse their young as nature intended. Instead, the calves are taken away at birth. The male calves, who cannot become dairy cows like their mothers, are often sold to veal-farming operations, which raise the calves for two or three months before sending them to slaughter.

Life as a veal calf is hellish: in order to produce the tender white flesh fancied by consumers, the calves are confined in tiny crates so that they cannot exercise and grow muscle. They are also fed a liquid diet (intentionally made deficient in iron) which causes them to develop severe anemia, making their flesh even whiter and more tender.

Many animal welfare advocates have tried to persuade consumers not to purchase veal, but the fact remains that as long as the dairy industry continues to produce male calves that it cannot profitably use any other way, this horrific practice is almost certain to continue.

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