Mother Cow Who Lost Her Calf to Dairy Industry Desperately Protects Her Friend’s Calf From Being Taken Away
For cows these days, dairy is scary. All around the world, more than 265 million dairy cows produce millions of tons of milk annually. Each of these cows was once a calf, who was brutally separated from its mother and trapped in hellish conditions. Day after day, machines were attached to their udders, and litters of milk were squeezed out, leaving the mammal tired and weak. Plus, their calves are separated from them, leaving mother cows to cry, scream, and bellow for days. A resurfaced footage from 2018 depicts the rage of one wounded cow mom who takes on an aggressive side to protect another calf from getting separated from its mother. The brave, fierce cow “Auntie” is being praised by millions of people who watched the video.
The 18-second footage opens into a green pasture where a dairy farmer is attempting to reach out to a calf who is engulfed in a herd of black adult cows. The moment the farmer picks up the calf, this enraged adult rushes towards him to snatch her friend’s baby from the man. She gnashes her head into the farmer’s belly while pounding her hooves to make him fall and then trample him. The furious lady follows the farmer, grabbing his garment from the back and making him run like a fool.
Eventually, the farmer loses his balance and drops down. Frightened that the cows will squash him under their weight, he gets up and runs away. The three adult cows of the herd surround the calf, probably telling her that she’s now safe and her cow auntie is there to protect her from the attacks of merciless humans. The heart-wrenching video was shared by Kinder World on YouTube, a non-profit initiative dedicated to encouraging compassion for animals by distributing educational videos online. This was the story of just one cow. But sadly, this cycle repeats over and over for millions of dairy cows.
Kinder World describes that the life of a dairy cow is a life of “prolonged suffering.” Apart from being continuously inseminated by artificial machines, they're separated from their calves right after birth. Their calves don't even get to drink their mother's milk. Instead of ambling in lush pastures with their calves, these cows spend most of their life feeling intense loneliness and gripping fear that would not be erased from their memory. A disheartening illustration of what happens to mother cows in the dairy industry was shared by PETA India on YouTube.
Like humans, cows also need to produce calves to produce milk. So, the moment a cow reaches sexual maturity, she spends most of her days being pregnant, explains Kinder World. She doesn’t get to raise her babies, unlike human mothers. Added to her overwhelming agony and stress, a lot of milk is squeezed out from her udders, causing her to become sick and weak. When a cow is weak, she is sent for slaughter. In such a heartbreaking scenario, the only thing humans can do is to understand that like them, these mammals also experience emotional storms. Sometimes, it is not easy to heal a broken heart, especially when it’s the heart of a mother whose baby has been snatched from her.