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4.- MILK - ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH, CRUELTY, AND POLLUTION
Most of the day the cow is tied up in a narrow stall usually 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. She is kept alive with antibiotics and hormones. Each year 20 per cent of these dairy cows are sent illegally by truck and train to slaughter houses. Or they are starved to death by letting them loose in the cities.
It is no secret that the slaughter house in Goa was constructed by Amul Dairy. No cow lives out her normal life cycle. She is milked, made sick and then killed. Even worse happens to her child. The male calves are tied up and starved to death or sent to the slaughter houses. It is not by chance that a calf is no longer called bachdä in India. It is called katrä, which means one who is to be killed. Even Dr. Kurien admits that in Mumbai every year 80,000 calves are forcibly put to death.
But milkmen (doodhwäläs) love their cows. They live off them.
Have you seen how cows are milked? In the villages, they practice phookan, a method of milking a cow. A stick is poked into the cow's uterus and wiggled, causing her intense pain. Villagers believe this leads to more milk.
In the cities, they are given two injections of oxytocin every day to make the milk come faster. This gives her labor pains twice a day. Her uterus develops sores and makes her sterile prematurely. Oxytocin is banned for use on animals but it is sold in every cigarette shop around a dairy. Every illiterate milkman knows the word. In human beings, oxytocin causes hormonal imbalances, weak eyesight, miscarriages, and cancer.
Recently, government of Gujarat started raiding dairies for oxytocin. In one day, they found 350,000 ampoules in just one city Ahmedabad!
Pollutants in Milk
You mentioned pollution in milk. What does that mean?
The ICMR did research on milk for 7 years and took thousands of samples from across India. What did they find?
Large amounts of DDT, poisonous pesticides called HCH. Under the food adulteration act only 0.01 mg/kg is allowed of HCH. They found 5.7 mg/kg as an average!
THE BOOK OF COMPASSION
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