“I don’t know how many people out there really understand what is going on [with the dairy industry] and how polarizing a mother cow’s experience through pregnancy is compared to a human being’s”, says American actress Daniella Monet in video where she talks about how unfair it is that she gets to experience the beauty of her pregnancy and a mother cow in the dairy industry never will.
Monet is eight months pregnant and explains the hard part: “To be pregnant and to be in my body and feeling the way I feel, to be getting so much glory and praise. There’s just an excitement around it that a mother cow will never feel within these terms of the dairy industry.”
She tears up when she says: “When I think of a mother cow and her baby, I think of the relationship they don’t have because her baby is taken away instant. And I think of the nine months that they spend trying to connect to this baby that they’re growing and nourishing and then…to have their baby just taken away from them, in one of the most vulnerable and scary times of their life. They then don’t have that time to even bond. I just don’t understand it. For what?”
Monet continues saying that she knows of the recent undercover investigations done by the animal rights group Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) at the dairy producing Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana and the organic farm Natural Prairie Dairy in Texas, but she hasn’t watched it yet because she knows it’s painful to see.
“I’ve avoided watching them, but I also don’t think it’s fair for me to just have this pregnancy and feel the way I feel about my experience. I almost want to be transported into their world so I can fight harder for them, so I’m going to watch them”, she explains.
The first video she watches is of the Fair Oaks Farms that follows the life of new born babies. Even though she said she knows what happens, the video leaves her in tears and shocked by human behavior: “This is so horrific. How can a human torture an animal like this? I just want this to end.” And after she sees a calves being punched in the face, dragged and just made to suffer she says: “At this point I just want them to be dead [so they don’t have to suffer].”
The second video was made in July at the organic farm Natural Prairie Dairy, the largest organic dairy farm in the United States, housing more than 25.000 cows in four locations. The video starts wit the owner kicking a cow and cows being dragged by a tractor. “This is organic everyone”, Monet says. She feels that people think that because it’s organic it’s not cruel. But taking away a baby from a mom is always cruel.
You see the cow nipples being burned and cows not wanting to move anymore. “In what world is death the better option? When you’ve endured so much pain and suffering you rather just roll over and die. This is their life everyday.”
The most heart wrenching moment is when a mom while giving birth tries to run away from the humans, knowing they’ll mistreat her child. “She doesn’t feel dave while giving birth. We [humans] get all these birthing options, we get allowed to bond with our baby. This mom just know they’ll take her baby away. How can we allow for this to happen?”
“If there was no need to create dairy in this way for humans, all this would end, they wouldn’t have a business. It could end if we all just decided that we didn’t need it anymore and we wouldn’t spend a dime on dairy ever again”, she pleas with viewers.
And viewers are listening. The video has been watched over 270 thousand times with comments like:
“Oh my gosh I didn’t even know what was going on this is horrible I will give up dairy now for sure”
“What I just watched was disgusting and I don’t know what to say… I make a oath to stop drinking dairy or anything that has to do with milk or dairy”
“I’m already a vegetarian but thanks to you I will give up dairy. Thank you so much these animals deserve better”
“I never knew this is what happened I definitely want to try going dairy-free “
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