Shocking scenes of cruelty and suffering can be seen in this investigation, which was conducted from 2021 to 2022, covering small and medium dairies and cattle markets in the state of Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana and West Bengal in India.

Visit https://animalequality.in/action/dairy-dark-secret to sign the petition requesting the government to introduce rules for the protection of dairy animals.

We have the power to end this mass torture by eliminating milk and milk products from our diet and replacing it with delicious plant-based dairy.

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Dairy's Dark Secret

Transcript (English — en)

Throughout 2021 and 2022,
Animal Equality
conducted an extensive undercover
investigation into the dairy industry
in the Indian states of Bihar,
Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Telangana and West Bengal.
We investigated 27 farms,
six markets and two slaughterhouses.
We documented buffaloes, cows and calves
beaten with sticks and ropes.
Workers often also hit,
kick, pull and twist their tails.
Cows and buffaloes are tightly tethered
and forced to stand in their own
waste on hard ground.
Like humans, cows and buffaloes
produce milk
only after giving birth to feed
and nourish their newborns.
In Narsinghi,
our investigators discovered
that male calves are either sold
for slaughter or left to die,
as the farmers do not need them.
This is a standard practice in the dairy
industry.
Mother cows and buffaloes often stop
producing milk when they are separated
from their calves.
To continue taking the milk from their mothers,
workers stuff calf carcasses with hay,
trying to make the mothers
believe that they are nursing their calves.
Workers also inject the animals
with Oxytocin,
a hormone that stimulates
milk production.
Oxytocin has harmful effects on
the animals and also on those
who consume dairy products.
On this farm in Chandrayangutta,
the farm worker confesses
that they also use drugs
to stimulate milk production.
In Bahadurpura, the dairy owner
openly admitted administering Oxytocin.
In Hyderabad, a supplier of buffaloes
to dairies confirms
that the drug commonly injected is Oxytocin,
a drug with harmful effects on the animals
and also on those
who consume dairy products.
Investigators
traveled to six markets in four states
where cows, buffaloes and
unwanted calves are sold for slaughter.
Weak and dehydrated animals are forced onto trucks
by workers who whip and beat them.
Children working in these markets
imitate this treatment,
including the practice of painfully
manipulating the genitals of the buffaloes.
Following our investigation
of a dairy farm near Kolkata,
the Animal Welfare Board of India
recommended criminal charges for workers
caught ramming sticks into a buffalo
and pouring water
over her nose and mouth
to stimulate the effect of drowning.
While India has several
laws protecting animals,
their enforcement is rare,
and these offenses
usually remain unpunished.
More than 327 million cows
and buffaloes endure abuse every day.
Protect these animals
by replacing dairy products
with delicious plant-based options.
You are probably shocked
and saddened by these visuals.
I am too!
We must realise
that these abusive practices
are an integral
part of the dairy industry.
But we, as consumers,
have the power to end this abuse.
Remember when the demand stops,
the production stops too.
Just like us, animals have a strong
will to live, and to live
a life free of misery.
Mahatma Gandhi once said:
"The more helpless a creature,
the more entitled
they are to protection by man
from the cruelty of man."
You can help millions of animals
just by doing a small thing,
and that is by leaving animals
and animal products off your plate.
I request you to please
consider this today.
Thank you!