Unsafe milk: NDTV unearths dairy scam

NDTV.com (New Delhi)

Milk "production" for today's large, modern-day markets (regardless of country) seem to lead to some pretty nasty solutions:

Buffaloes are regularly injected with oxytocin, a potent artificial hormone which is given to women and animals to hasten delivery.

The hormone increases contractions in the womb and causes milk to flow faster. But it does so by causing immense pain to the animals which undergo labour pains twice a day.

In a couple of years, the forced contractions often cause the animal's womb to rupture, rendering them useless.

"Dairy people inject the animals in the belief that it increases milk. This is a misconception as it only lets the milk down faster.

"The milk definitely causes damage and harm to humans as well as the cattle in which it is injected," said Dr Vinod Sharma, Chief Veterinary Surgeon, JeevAshram.

"In the animals, the poor beast gives milk for 3-4 years and then goes dry and cannot reproduce. As a result they are let off on the streets of the Capital," added Dr Sharma.

I stopped by an Indian restaurant for dinner tonight, but I'm avoiding restaurants that serve naan with dairy, so I moved on. It's not that I'm boycotting the restaurants so much as I can't seem to enjoy dal, sag aloo, and all those delicious dishes nearly so much without. Many of the meatless Indian dishes that incorporate dairy involve plenty of cruelty, as witnessed above, much less all the cruelty involved with dairy in our own country.

Categories: animal cruelty | milk