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In a moving new video, actress and animal activist Daniella Monet watches two undercover investigations into the dairy industry and asks her followers to reconsider buying dairy. The video has already amassed more than 170,000 views, with many people thanking Monet for enlightening them on the industry’s cruelty.
It all started with an Instagram post. On Saturday, Monet shared with her 3.2 million followers a picture of her pregnant belly with the caption: “the hardest part about my pregnancy… *link to video in my bio.”
The link led followers to a YouTube video where an emotional Monet explains how her pregnancy makes her even more sensitive to the plight of mother cows in the dairy industry:
I don’t know how many people out there really understand what is going on and how polarizing a mother cow’s experience through pregnancy is compared to a human being’s.
Like all mammals, cows must be pregnant or have just given birth to produce milk. In the dairy industry, cows are forcibly impregnated, a highly invasive and stressful procedure, and newborn calves are taken from their mothers within hours of birth. Mother cows often bellow for hours or even days, pacing and searching for them in distress. Since they don’t produce milk, male calves are useless to the dairy industry and are typically sold for veal production. Females are forced into the same cycle of pregnancy and milking their mothers endured.
Monet admits she often avoids watching investigations of factory farms to save herself the pain:
I think about the nine months they spent trying to connect to this baby that they’re growing and nourishing, and then to have it just taken away from them.
But Monet resolves to watch two recent investigations by the animal rights group Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) to better understand what cows are put through, to be “transported into their world” so she can fight harder for them.
The first video is ARM’s investigation into Fair Oaks Farms, one of the largest dairies in the United States. Using surveillance equipment to capture the normal daily routine of workers and managers, the investigator assisted in bottle-feeding newborn calves, loading transport trucks, and disposing of the dead. The investigator described what he saw as “by far the worst abuse to baby animals” that he had seen “in any investigation in the world.”
As Monet watches calves being hit, punched, burned, thrown, and left to suffer, she says through tears: “This is so, so horrific. I didn’t expect that. … I just want it to end. I just want this to go away.” After the video, she states:
It really could end if we all just decided that we didn’t need it anymore and we never spent a dime on dairy ever again. This would end.
The second video is the first cruelty investigation into an organic dairy farm in the United States. ARM’s investigative team gathered footage between March and July 2019 at Natural Prairie Dairy in Channing, Texas, the largest organic dairy farm in the United States, housing more than 25,000 cows across its four locations.
Before watching, Monet states:
There are so many people out there that feel like they’re not participating in cruelty because they buy organic, and I think there’s such a misconception there.
The footage shows cows being stabbed with screwdrivers, kicked, and dragged when they are too weak to stand. Horrified, Monet says, “The biggest takeaway is to completely understand that there is literally no difference between the two businesses, organic and non-organic.”
Monet finishes her video by thanking ARM for their invaluable work and asking her fans to make the compassionate choice and opt for dairy-free products, saying:
I know that if enough people saw what really happened, there would be a huge shift, and we need those people to use their voice, even if it’s just telling your mom or your friend.
We can all make a difference for animals suffering in the dairy industry by choosing more plant-based foods. Download your FREE Vegetarian Starter Guide today.