Dairy Kills Calves

View all photos for this campaign in the photo gallery

Like humans, cows are strongly maternal beings who form close bonds with their young and must be pregnant or give birth to produce milk.

The milk and cheese we eat comes from an industry which relies on the confinement, mutilation and slaughter of cows who are killed at just a fraction of their natural lifespan.

Dairy Takes Babies from their Mothers 

Male bobby calves, like the one in this photo, are considered waste products to the dairy industry, due to their inability to produce milk. In Australia, as many as 400,000 bobby calves are separated from their mothers and slaughtered every year. Terrified and abandoned, they will be killed by blunt-force trauma if under 24 hours old, or by firearms, captive bolt guns or chemical euthanasia.

Dairy Exploits Female Cows

Female cows are artificially inseminated to produce milk and selectively bred in order to produce higher levels of milk than they would naturally? Modern dairy cows produce around 20-40L of milk per day while calves only drink 5-10L of milk per day. Dairy cows experience pain and discomfort throughout their lives due to large, swollen udders and related injuries. They are then killed  at approximately 7 years old, often whilst pregnant. 

Dairy is Killing the Planet

A 2018 study from Oxford University published in ‘Science’ found that producing one glass of dairy milk every day for a year requires an amount of land the size of two tennis courts – 10 times more land than is needed to produce a glass of oat milk, and vastly more than soy or other plant-based milks.

But you can stop it… Take the pledge to stop consuming dairy today and take action to build a better world for all animals. 

You can learn more about the reality of dairy via our online knowledgebase.

What We Want

• An end to the production of dairy and the use of cows to produce milk
• Increased funding for the growing plant-based sector including investment in plant-based and cell-based dairy alternatives
• Government support for farmers to transition out of the dairy industry and into kinder, sustainable industries

Here's what you can do:

1. Pledge to stop consuming dairy
2. Share this video
3. Write a letter to the Victorian Minister for Agriculture to demand a just transition plan for dairy farmers into kinder and more sustainable industries.
   You can use our template below to easily send an email to the Minister.

Together we can stop the cycle of violence.

As a small charity entirely reliant on private donations, we need your help to continue creating campaigns like this and to reach more of the people who need to see them.