Proof That Dairy is Rape

Feb 17, 2020

"Living is easy with eyes closed,
Misunderstanding all you see."
–The Beatles,
“Strawberry Fields Forever”

*Disclaimer

Be aware that this may be difficult to read, particularly if you are a victim of sexual assault or are sensitive to the issue. I will be discussing rape, sexual assault, and bestiality in depth, something that has been quite distressing and disturbing for me to document to say the least. However, if you do still consume dairy, I would encourage you to continue reading, even if you think you can't. Rape is a serious accusation, and I assure you that I would not use the word if I didn't feel it was necessary.

Definitions

The United States Department of Justice defines rape as follows: “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”[1]

Sexual assault is defined as attempted rape; fondling or unwanted sexual touching; forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body; or the penetration of the victim’s body, also known as rape.[2]

Bestiality is defined as sex between a human and nonhuman animal or the sexual assault of a nonhuman animal by a human. In the United States, there are few laws against bestiality, and the ones that do exist are generally vague.[3, 4] Because of this, it's almost impossible to cite one specific definition. Since a nonhuman animal can never give verbal consent, I will be defining bestiality as sexual assault perpetrated by a human on a nonhuman.

Important Distinctions

Note that the definition of rape, while it says "of another person," never strictly states that the victim must also be a "person." Of course, there is a movement to provide nonhuman animals with legal personhood, or the allowance of certain protective rights, such as the protection against unwanted sexual advances.[5] However, the law currently implies that persons must be human.

In addition, the bestiality definition of "sex between a human and nonhuman" is impossible because nonhumans, like children, aren't capable of expressing consent, as I said before. Therefore, the penetration of an animal by a human would be rape, or at least bestial rape.

How Dairy is Created: Males

Instead of putting a bull and a cow in a pen together and waiting until something happens, the entire process has been streamlined for efficiency. This is known as artificial insemination (AI), meaning that a bull is only needed for his sperm. A bull is forced to mount a fake cow fitted with an artificial vagina in which the semen is collected. Afterward, the semen is frozen and can be used later to inseminate as many as 1,000 cows.[6]

**You can also watch this informative video by Joey Carbstrong to see some of the other ways semen is collected from bulls.

How Dairy is Created: Females

When it's time to be inseminated, female cows are placed in a tight pen, colloquially called a "rape rack," so that they cannot move.[7] The farmer then puts his arm in the cow's anus to manipulate her cervix, inserting the insemination gun and injecting the semen, as shown in the picture below. Unless this is the cow's first pregnancy, she will still be producing milk from her prior pregnancy. Cows have the same gestation period as humans, so her baby will be born after about nine months. The calf is generally taken away as soon as possible so the mother can be milked mechanically, and the mother will be impregnated again 50-90 days later.[8]

How Dairy is Created: Children

Since one bull can inseminate many females but are incapable of producing milk themselves, there isn't a need for as many male calves as females. Baby boys are either raised about six months and then slaughtered for veal and leather or are killed within a few days of birth. Girls go back into the dairy system and will face the same fate as their mothers. Since, statistically, about half of the babies will be male, that means about half the babies will be killed 20 years shy of their natural lifespan (of 20 years).[9] Because of this, it could also be argued that dairy is institutional infanticide.

When females have produced a few children, after approximately five years, they are also sent to slaughter. If a cow falls ill before slaughter and cannot be healed, the law states that she must be euthanized.[10] However, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners considers lethal IV injections (what we commonly think of as euthanasia); a gunshot to the brain; and a captive bolt gun to the brain followed by exsanguination (bleeding out), an IV injection, or pithing (inserting a rod in the neck to sever the spine) all as adequate forms of euthanasia.[11] But what do you think they'd choose? The expensive painless death, or the cheap DIY one? And there's no one there to ensure any of these "humane" standard laws are being followed regularly.

Life of Fear

It's one thing to talk about rape and another thing to experience it. There's a reason why so many women relate to dairy cows and to all female animals used in animal agriculture, and that's because every woman is terrified of being sexually assaulted. And actually experiencing it is like her worst nightmare come true. Most men don't understand the fear of being out alone at night, or how our heartbeats begin to quicken if an unknown man approaches us, or the feeling of being on display when passing a group of men on the street.

In the vegan community, we often talk about the injustice of all farm animals being sent to slaughter, and it most certainly is, but losing your life is the end. The end of your suffering; the end of everything. When you're sexually assaulted, however, though you may not lose your life, you lose part of your soul. To be violated in such an intimate, degrading, sadistic manner marks the beginning of your suffering. That person took a part of you, something you will never fully recover. So, imagine going through that just for the purpose of getting you pregnant and abducting your baby. Over and over and over....

Intent

When it comes to nonhuman animals, the idea of intent is often brought into the mix. Because the farmer is not receiving sexual pleasure by putting his arm up a cow's anus, it is therefore not considered rape or bestiality. However, if we were to change the victim, this argument falls apart. When a man forcefully penetrates a woman, that is rape. It doesn't matter what his intentions were or if he was pleasured by the encounter; all that matters are the actions he took to violate the woman.

Even if we were to change the cow to a cat, we would still consider it rape, or bestiality if you prefer that term. Because we feel kinship with cats; they're our companion animals. (Though even cats still have few legal protections against sexual assault.) So what is the difference between a cow and a cat that makes it seem like such a leap to call what happens in the dairy industry rape? ...It's money. Because it is the farmer's job to masturbate a bull and then put his arm up a cow's anus to impregnate her. As long as dairy is sold in this country, the government will never allow it to be called sexual abuse because they have a huge economic incentive to let it continue.

We've seen this happen in recent years with sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein who got away with raping and sexually assaulting women and young girls for decades because they had wealth and power. To farm animals, life is constant harassment from sexual predators; they don't understand that the farmer probably doesn't want to be hurting them like that. And the animals, and the activists speaking up for them, will continue to be silenced until there are enough of us making enough noise that the people with power realize they've begun to lose the battle.

A Clarification

Lastly, let me make clear that I'm not calling farmers rapists. When a system forces them to commit acts of violence, it's the system's fault, not theirs. Of course, they're not the ones being physically violated and abused, but their livelihoods are entirely dependant on performing those actions. And I recognize that many of them feel stuck and regretful over how many babies and parents they've raised and killed. Now, that still doesn't mean they get a free pass, and they certainly should be held accountable for their actions; what that means is we, as caring and empathetic people, should be helping them move towards a compassionate career.