It is inconceivable to imagine a world without cows’ milk. We humans have been dependent on cows’ milk for centuries. People have been rearing cows for their milk all over the world. Milk is a whole food containing necessary minerals and vitamins and is a must for growing up children.
Even Jains, who are totally opposed to harming any living beings, consider the use of milk as permissible. Besides being a wholesome drink, it is used for making other essential foods like butter, cheese, curd and cream.
We also use milk for making sweets and “mithais”. Perhaps that is why in India we treat cows as holly animals. In olden days cows were milked by hand which did not cause them any pain and some milk was left for their calves to feed on.
Nowadays, in the modern industrialised society, cows are milked en masse by machines which must cause them pain. Besides in order to make profit, farmers milk them dry leaving little for the calves to feed on.
Milk is produced in such an abundance that in supermarkets, the price of bottled water is more than the pint of milk.
Vegans, who are opposed to the consumption of any animal product, even milk, have began a campaign to bring to light the suffering and pain which are caused to cows in the production of milk. They say that cows are treated in an inhumane way, and should be treated in compassionate way.
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
