The Issues
Feedlots
Feedlots are giant properties spanning vast areas, packed full of cows or sheep who are fed high-calorie diets and given growth hormones so they grow unnaturally fast to meet market weight for slaughter more quickly.
There’s no space to roam. There’s no vegetation. There’s inadequate or no shade or protection from rain, wind, hail or storms. Gases from manure cause painful and sometimes fatal respiratory problems for the animals. The most common cause of death for cattle on feedlots is Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD).
With the animals crammed together, diseases are rife. Animals are pumped full of antibiotics to try to combat these diseases.
There are hundreds of feedlots in Queensland, many containing tens of thousands of animals. These animals can stay at these feedlots for anywhere from 70 to 400+ days.
At any given time in Australia, there are around 1 million cattle ‘on feed’. These feedlots are usually hidden from the general public, and obscured from public roads so that consumers don’t see the reality of Australian factory farming.
Dairy
The dairy industry’s marketing machine tells an idyllic story of cows and calves frolicking in green meadows, carefree and happy. The reality – cows and calves suffer on dairy farms. While shoppers pay a seemingly small price for a litre or two of milk, animals in the dairy industry pay the ultimate price.
Cows are mammals too.
Most people don’t give a thought to the fact that, like human mothers, cows only produce milk to feed their babies. This means that they are continually impregnated in order to produce milk. There is just one catch – their babies are taken away from them. Why? So humans can drink their milk.
Dairy cows lead miserable lives.
Most people don’t give a thought to the fact that, like human mothers, cows only produce milk to feed their babies. This means that they are continually impregnated in order to produce milk. There is just one catch – their babies are taken away from them. Why? So humans can drink their milk.
Cows are killed when they are no longer ‘useful’.
The dairy industry discards cows when they are no longer profitable. They are killed prematurely at around 6 years of age, due to illness, injury, infertility, mastitis and lameness. They are transported to saleyards or straight to the abattoir – their weak, bony frames tell a story of suffering.
Bobby calves – the dairy industry’s biggest secret.
Calves born into the dairy industry are deemed either useful (females who will eventually replace the breeding herd) or not (typically males who are slaughtered). The industry terms those calves destined for slaughter ‘bobby calves’. Around 400,000 tiny bobby calves are killed every year in Australia – often within their first week of life. These babies are essentially the ‘waste products’ of the dairy industry.
What are we doing?
- In October 2015 we launched Ditch Dairy one of the biggest public awareness campaigns in Queensland about the dairy industry.
- In 2017 we released undercover footage showing what happens behind the scenes in the dairy industry and obtained prime time news coverage following our successful protest action.
- We have run public campaigns to force issues related to dairy into the media and public discourse.
- Investigating and documenting reports of animal cruelty in Queensland.
What can you do?
- Avoid buying and consuming dairy - this includes milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter – please go vegan, a way of life that tries to avoid animal exploitation and suffering.
- Check out our Vegan4Life website for tips on making the switch. You can also take the 30 day challenge to receive tips by email every few days.
