YOU MEAN DAIRY COWS ARE SLAUGHTERED?

Here's one of those interesting cognitive-dissonance things I failed to get when I was a vegetarian, but not vegan: Consuming dairy products is personally paying for the killing of cows. Dairy cows are not only milked dry, but then slaughtered and turned into meat, whether you happen to personally eat that meat or not. And here's a perfect example of how well-appreciated those hard-working cows are: Dairy farmers to slaughter more cows to get prices up. "The National Milk Producers Federation will pay farmers to send nearly 52,000 cows to slaughter over the next couple of months. That will remove 931 million pounds of milk, or 0.55 percent, from the nation's supply, according to the group. This is the second year that the milk group is paying farmers to reduce the amount of milk on the market." Well, at least they're doing it to benefit you, the consumer, so... what's that? Huh? "The dairy reduction effort was one of several factors that helped push milk prices to record highs this year, following 25-year lows the previous year." Oh. OK.

The obligatory contrasting quote comes from Tamiko Thomas, an HSUS animal scientist who says it's a disturbing example of "the callousness of industrialized agriculture," noting the truism that the industry "considers farm animals as expendable." Then there's a priceless rebuttal: "The milk group's Galen disagreed. 'The animals aren't expandable; they're going into the food supply,' he said. 'And they will be used to contribute to the meat supply.'" See? It's not like they're cutting the cows' lives short just to pump up their own profit margin and then throwing them on a landfill or something. Sheesh.