English Milk Sale Investigated

the following story is taken from c&w website

Guernsey's Law Officers have been consulted after a Bridge shop started selling English milk again. The Commerce and Employment Department, which looks after the interests of Guernsey Dairy, says it is aware - but believes it is only UHT or long life products, which there is no law against
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UHT milk is readily available in alderney ..they have dairy herds and the sale of this milk has not had a detrimental effect on the sales of alderney dairy products...it is my opinion that guernsey dairy milk prices are now far to high and i will use the cheaper UHT milk if i can get it x

ah the poor old dairy cow , the hardest worked of all farm animals, has her babies taken away from her at a few days old , sometimes a few hours old , she bellows for them for over a week , she`s kept in a cycle of being milked and giving birth, many dairy cows never seeing the light of day or grass under their feet ( dont believe the adverts you see ) they are often neglected , left in filth , not given pain relief for painful mastitis , thats why your average glass of milk contians blood, pus and skin, i could rumble on and on and on, how the babies that are no use to the industry of smashed over the head with a hammer and left in piles to die, however my point is, if you all switched to oat, rice or coconut milk then you would lower the price for yourselves and be healthier, milk is meant for baby calves not humans, it has growth hormones in it to turn a calf into a cow within a short space of time!

schooly jo the part of scotland i originally come from have lots of beef and dairy herds and believe me they are very wellcared for..wherever you go you see fields of different species of cows.have tried various forms of milk but they are all disgusting x

Animal Aid

The size of the total cattle herd in the UK - including both dairy and beef animals - is around 10 million. Of these, 1.8 million are adult dairy cows.

In order to produce commercial quantities of milk, dairy cows are forced to endure a constant cycle of pregnancies. Lactation does not occur unless this cycle is perpetuated. Calves are usually removed from their mothers within 24 hours of birth, after suckling their mother's first antibody-rich milk, known as colostrum. Separation of mother and infant causes acute anxiety and suffering for both animals. Mother cows have been known to break out of fields and then walk for miles to be reunited with calves taken to auction.

The calves' fate is one of the industry's dirty secrets. Each year, nearly half a million unwanted calves are born in the UK. Many females replace their worn-out mothers in the dairy herd. But the males are often regarded as waste by-products. Some are transported long distances to continental veal farms, others are killed within a week or two for baby food, or for cheese and pie ingredients. Some are simply shot in the head shortly after birth.

Milk-producing machines


Dairy cows in the UK are typically black and white Holstein/Friesians, genetically selected to provide maximum milk yields. In an unfettered state, a cow will feed her calf for approximately six to eight months. Milk is secreted at a maximum rate of about eight to ten litres per day, which the calf suckles on four to six occasions. The mother produces less than 1,000 litres throughout the duration of her lactation, storing approximately two litres in her udders at any one time.

In modern dairy farming, cows can be expected to produce between 6,000 and 12,000 litres during their 10 month lactation. This means she may be carrying in excess of 20 litres at any one time - ten times as much as would be required for her calf.

Exploitation of the reproductive system


The most common technique used to impregnate dairy cows is artificial insemination (AI). But, increasingly, powerful hormones are being used to force high quality cows to produce large numbers of embryos, which are surgically removed and inserted into lower grade females who then bring the calves to term.

Housing


Dairy cows are usually kept outside on pasture for the duration of the summer months. For the remainder of the year they are kept indoors, typically in concrete cubicle houses. Each cow has a cubicle to stand or lie in, which should have straw or wood shavings provided. Behind each animal a passageway collects urine and faeces, requiring cleaning twice daily. Accumulated waste is stored in huge slurry lagoons, later to be spread on the land.

Many cubicles still in use were designed decades ago and have become too small for the modern, larger animal. This has compounded welfare problems, resulting in cows standing in the dunging passageway. It also has major health implications.

Lameness


Around 20% of British dairy cows are lame at any one time. In fact, inspections of the feet of cull cows at slaughter reveal evidence of past or present foot damage in nearly all animals. Lameness is caused by a number of factors. These include the quantity of bedding available, the move towards cubicle housing and the now near universal practice of feeding animals wet, fermented grass (known as silage), rather than dry hay. Silage produces wet faeces and acidic slurry in the dunging passageway, which eventually softens the feet and causes infection.

Also implicated in lameness is the reliance on concentrated feed supplements, which are difficult for these slow-digesting ruminants to cope with. The result is the release of inflammatory substances into the bloodstream, which lead to a condition known as laminitis, an acutely painful foot disorder.

Another important reason for dairy cow lameness is the vast size and weight of the modern animal's udder. It is so large and distended that most cows simply cannot stand or walk properly.

Mastitis


Dairy cows are prone to infection of the udder caused by bacteria and other environmental pathogens entering via the teat canal. This acutely painful condition is known as mastitis. Incidence varies from between 30 to more than 60 cases in every 100 cows during a year.

Other illnesses


About 5%-8% of cows suffer from the condition known as "milk fever". This is caused by the sudden depletion of calcium reserves each year from the heavy burden of calf-birth and lactation.

Many also get "grass staggers" from lack of magnesium in the diet. General depletion of nutrients caused by increasing intensification also triggers cases of brucellosis and viral infections and susceptibility to salmonella bacteria.

Cows would naturally live for as long as 25 years, but by the time they reach four or five on modern farms, they are likely to be physically exhausted, lame and infertile. These worn-out animals are sent to a slaughterhouse.
Beef cattle


There are around 1.6 million adult beef cows in the UK. As well as suckling their own calves, around 70% of youngsters born to dairy animals are also raised within beef herds. From the beef farmer's point of view, the heavier and "beefier" his calves the better. Specialist companies dealing in bull semen for artificial insemination (AI) provide the means to achieve this.

The most popular breed chosen to provide semen is the Belgian Blue. This animal carries a recessive gene for "double muscling", so-called because of the enormous muscles, particularly on the hindquarters. Belgian Blue stud bulls have to be born via Caesarean section because their sheer size makes natural delivery impossible.

Mutilations performed on cattle


Male calves reared for beef are often castrated, despite being slaughtered before they reach sexual maturity. Methods commonly used include surgical castration, tight rubber rings that restrict blood flow, and appliances that crush the spermatic cord of each testis - the so-called "bloodless castrator".

Both dairy cows and beef cattle are de-horned - a painful procedure - to prevent animals injuring each other. Horns contain both blood circulation and nerve endings, and so local anaesthesia and cauterisation are necessary to stem bleeding. If horns have already developed, they are removed with saws, horn shears or cutting wire.

Young animals whose horns are not established can be disbudded. A hot iron is applied to the horn-forming tissue when the calf is 4-6 weeks old, permanently preventing growth.

Disease


The BSE crisis was followed in the winter of 1996/97 by a serious outbreak of food poisoning created by meat infected with E. coli 0157 bacteria. Twenty people died in a series of outbreaks in Scotland.

More than 700 types of E.coli have been identified. They are mainly harmless and inhabit the intestinal tract of people and other warm-blooded animals but a few strains, including the notorious O157:H7, can be deadly.

O157:H7 is found in the guts of many animals, but mainly cows. The increased number of human cases has been attributed to the intensification of farming practices and the consequent widespread use of antibiotics. Studies in France, Sweden and Canada have identified a positive correlation between the cattle density of an area and rates of human infection.

Consuming contaminated beef products is the most common source of infection, but the disease can be spread by any food or drink that has been tainted by animal manure.

Slaughterhouses are an obvious place for contamination of meat. Operators are urged to ensure the animals’ skins are not covered in faeces, and prevent the spillage of the digestive tract contents during and after organ removal. However, in 2008, secret filming by BBC journalists found carcasses at a number of Welsh abattoirs which had been health-marked by inspectors yet were contaminated by faeces.

Read Animal Aid’s guide to Animal diseases and their impact on human health

Live Transport


Current EU rules allow cattle to travel for 14 hours without a rest or water. They must have a rest period of at least one hour after a 14 hour journey, after which, they may be transported for a further 14 hours. If the destination can be reached within another 2 hours then they may go a full 16 hours. After the second 14 hour journey, if the destination has not been reached the cattle must be unloaded, given food and water and rested for 24 hours. The journey times can then be repeated and this pattern can be repeated infinitely.

A number of organisations and politicians have created an online petition campaign to limit the maximum overall journey length to 8 hours. Whilst this would be a considerable improvement on current legislation, it is still a long time to be spent in a confined space with no room to turn around, lie down and without access to water.

Go Meat and Dairy-Free


Killing an animal for food can never be regarded as humane. Animals’ lives are as important to them as ours are to us and none go to the knife willingly. Choosing organic or free-range over factory farmed meat, milk or eggs, continues to cause pain and suffering. The only viable solution to end animal suffering is to adopt an animal-free diet.


Contact Animal Aid at The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1AW, UK, tel +44 (0)1732 364546, fax +44 (0)1732 366533, email info@animalaid.org.uk.
Registered in the UK as Animal Abuse Injustice and Defence Society. Company number 1787309.

you need the bottom section of this link thistle , and i agree soya, cocnut, rice and oat milk are different but give it a few weeks and you wont even notice x

If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?

we were not on about eating meat, we were talking about milk and if you want to come out with such an ignorant phrase , technically humans are made out of meat , but you wouldnt roast a baby for your sunday dinner would you!

Hmm, interesting idea.

schoolyjo wrote:ah the poor old dairy cow , the hardest worked of all farm animals, has her babies taken away from her at a few days old , sometimes a few hours old , she bellows for them for over a week , she`s kept in a cycle of being milked and giving birth, many dairy cows never seeing the light of day or grass under their feet ( dont believe the adverts you see ) they are often neglected , left in filth , not given pain relief for painful mastitis , thats why your average glass of milk contians blood, pus and skin, i could rumble on and on and on, how the babies that are no use to the industry of smashed over the head with a hammer and left in piles to die, however my point is, if you all switched to oat, rice or coconut milk then you would lower the price for yourselves and be healthier, milk is meant for baby calves not humans, it has growth hormones in it to turn a calf into a cow within a short space of time!

Is the above the perceived norm or exception to the rule. Schoolyjo you are fast becoming the conscience of the forum when it comes to animal welfare. First horses now cows. I accept that farm animals in general are there for a purpose but do not accept that it is the norm for them to be abused on a day to day basis. To balance your arguement NZ is possibly the biggest exporter of milk world wide and I see very few cases of abuse if any but I do see shed loads of healthy cows in grassy pastures.

well someone needs to be the voice of the voiceless i guess plimmerton! you need to do more internet searching animals are abused and i mean horrifically abuse all over the world. and good for NZ they must make up for australia and their shocking abuse of cows and sheep!

Guernsey's Law Officers have been consulted after a Bridge shop started selling English milk again. The Commerce and Employment Department, which looks after the interests of Guernsey Dairy, says it is aware - but believes it is only UHT or long life products, which there is no law against. Meanwhile, The owner of PoundWorld Plus says Guernsey is actually breaking EU laws by banning the importation of foreign milk. Nigel Staples tells us it is breaking EU protocals by banning imports of milk because the island has agreed to adopt continental regulations.
taken from c&w website

Nigel Staples tells us it is breaking EU protocols by banning imports of
milk because the island has agreed to adopt continental regulations.

I bet it's allowed in without any duty imposed, too. These same 'regulations' were quick enough to reduce the VAT-free allowance on goods sourced in the CI. Too much of a one-way street with the EU. It'll be the ruination of the islands.

there is no duty on food deebay

I was referring to the fact that 'regulations' reduced the VAT-free limit on CI exports to GBP10, because the CI are not part of the EU. Then they say that the CI cannot ban the import of milk because they are signed up to their protocols. Do the islands have MEPs that none of us are aware of?

i think you will find guernsey is signed up to protocol 3 deebay..has been for many many years .i think mr staples is talking about free the movement of butter,milk etc....after all the dairy exported guernsey butter to the uk leaving lots of empty shelves in the island ....think about it we already import lots of dairy products so why not milk .

taken from protocol 3.....http://www.netlaw.co.uk/study-material/protocol-3

2. In respect of agricultural products and products processed therefrom which are the subject of a special trade regime, the levies and other import measures laid down in Community rules and applicable by the United Kingdom shall be applied to third countries.

Such provisions of Community rules, in particular those of the Act of Accession, as are necessary to allow free movement and observance of normal conditions of competition in trade in these products shall also be applicable.

The Council, acting by a qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, shall determine the conditions under which the provisions referred to in the preceding subparagraphs shall be applicable to these territories.