Avid dairy drinkers may find it difficult to imagine that the benign milk carton is harbouring a dark secret. But the truth is, cows don't spontaneously produce milk.
Like all mammals, cows only lactate after giving birth. And to sustain high milk flow, Australian dairy cows are impregnated -- and consequently, give birth -- every year of their productive lives. The job of many newborn dairy calves however is finished on the day they are born. No longer 'needed' by the dairy industry, these vulnerable baby animals are separated from their grieving mothers so that the milk nature intended for them can be harvested for humans.
What happens to these babies? Some females will face the same fate as their mothers, but most calves will simply be killed. Every year the dairy industry sends around 1 million unwanted dairy calves to be killed at around 5 days of age.
