Written in response to the article "Drinking Milk Supports the Veal Industry" by Deanne Thomsen, which appeared in The Flip Side Volume 1, Issue 10 (April 14th - 27th, 2004).

As usual, animal rights advocates blow facts out of proportion. Deanne Thomsen cites a USDA statistic showing an increase in milk production per cow of nearly four times what it was in 1940 and attributes all of this to BGH. However, most farmers do not use BGH and the increase is due to better breeding techniques and better milking equipment. I seriously doubt Deanne Thomsen or Wendy Lyman have ever actually been to a farm.

My grandfather recently retired from farming and I am sure he would be disgusted to read your arguments because they have little to nothing to do with family farms. On the increased milk production issue, most farmers are against using BGH. My grandpa had the number one Brown Swiss stud bull in the nation about ten years ago. It was out of the top ten about a year later, and all of this increase was due to breeding, not hormones.

I also have a problem with your misrepresentations of living conditions for dairy cows. Most farms do not keep cows chained to a stall, they are allowed to freely roam the barnyard, and often grass pastures. The reason barnyards and floors are concrete is to keep them from becoming "knee-deep in manure." Concrete surfaces allow for the removal of manure.

You also state that people shouldn't drink milk that was intended for a baby cow. The fact is, cows produce more milk then one calf can consume. I have seen three cows feed as many as fifteen calves. Furthermore, we never had to call the cows in to be milked; they were almost always waiting at the door to be milked (Cows suffer pain if they are not milked).

My question to all of you animal rights advocates is what do you think we should do with cows, pigs, and other DOMESTICATED animals? They are called that for a reason; they won't survive in the wild. Their purpose is to give milk, eggs, wool, and serve as food.
Please refrain from making broad generalizations about the farming industry, as there is a HUGE difference between large corporate farms and the smaller family-run farms.

Deanne Thomsen Replies: I was referring to factory farms and not attacking small and most likely well-run family farms such as yours. I know there is a huge difference; this is why it is a problem that needs to be addressed. I do not doubt that your grandpa ran his farm in an ethical manner. The fact is, these practices no longer occur on the larger level. Animals have become machines which people exploit.
I did not say cows are chained to stalls, I said baby cows raised for veal are chained in crates. I encourage you to go visit a veal farm and tell me you see something otherwise. Veal in its essence could not exist without this cruel practice, and that is why it should be outlawed. Yes, animals do have things that can be of use to us when they are no longer of use to them, however, we must take these products in a kind manner instead of the way large "farms" are doing it.