CUT OFF THEIR TAILS WITH A CARVING KNIFE See how they run! See how they run! They all ran after the farmer's wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife! A COW NAMED JENNY Dear Friends, Imagine being in a position in which you are forced to sentence a healthy family pet to a painful and torturous death so that a stranger might eat her flesh. I would suffer nightmares for a very long time. I am certain that those who are in this position are often challenged by such moral dilemmas. I read a haunting guest editorial in the most recent issue of Hoard's Dairyman, the national dairy farm magazine. The art of warfare dictates that one should keep his enemy close. I subscribe to Hoard's in order to receive the latest information from an industry that I abhor. Today I print that letter contained in the August 10, 2001 issue, page 486. I have read this guest opinion over and over, many times. It's painful. I can feel the author's torment. I can touch the tears on her face. I can see her eyes as she fights the thoughts keeping her awake at night. Through Hoards, I have learned what dairy people strategize. I read the obituaries and discover that dairymen die at a much younger age than the general population. Their rates of cancer and heart disease are intolerably high. It is no wonder. They use their own product. A one year subscription to Hoard's will cost you $16. I receive an unbelievable return on my investment, with 12 monthly issues filled with insider information. To subscribe to Hoard's, call 920-563-5551. Dairy farmers are the hardest working people in America. For generations, they have been praised for their work ethic in bringing what many describe as nature's perfect food for Americans. I call it a deadly poison. They hate me, for certain, for shattering their myth. I love them, for sure, for that work ethic and set of values which are the same values that made America strong. Here is the column, written by a dairy farmer: ______________________________________________ THE PARADOX OF ANIMAL CARE by Laurie Briggs, New York "I was intrigued by the final line in the letter from Jean W. Southack in the July, 2001 issue, page 446. Her opinion was presented as a moral absolute. `Cows have a right to keep full-length tails.' It's true, of course. Cows have a right to keep full-length tails. Cows also have a right to keep their horns and extra teats. Cows have a right to breed naturally and to suckle their offspring. Cows have a right to graze and to follow ancestral migratory routes when the seasons change. Cows have a right to old age. These are moral absolutes that farmers have always struggles with. It is not the scope of our business but the nature of our enterprise which defines us as dairy farmers. There are certain parameters which apply to us all. We are in this business to harvest and market milk. We have to establish a routine of pregnancies and calvings to maintain milk production. There is no place in a dairy operation for bull calves. An unproductive cow is sold for beef. We have a small, family-run farm. When our cows are not grazing, they are lolling in our tie stall barn equipped with tunnel ventilation. Stalls are bedded with pine shavings and lime for fly-free comfort. We use no pesticides or herbicides. All of our heifers are home-grown, with calves bottle-fed whole milk 3x. Our cows have names, and we know their family histories through the generations. None of this entitles us to feel morally superior to factory farms, for we are bound by the same universal truths. Our family harvests and markets milk. We work diligently to maintain a 12-month calving interval. We put bull calves on the truck on market day. And, when one of our cows stops producing milk, she is sold for beef even if she is a 13- year-old cow named Jenny who gave us a fine string of heifer calves. All of us are confronted with the paradox; trying to reconcile universal truths and moral absolutes." __________________________________________________ Robert Cohen author of: MILK A-Z Executive Director (notmilkman@notmilk.com) Dairy Education Board http://www.notmilk.com This file: http://www.notmilk.com/forum/670.txt Do you know of a friend or family member with one or more of these milk-related problems? Do them a huge favor and forward the URL or this entire file to them. Do you know of someone who should read these newsletters? If so, have them send a empty Email to: notmilk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and they will receive it (automatically)!