A new bill before Congress could kill citizens’ ability to sue the dairy industry for polluting drinking water. A recent op-ed in The Hill urges lawmakers to follow California’s lead by scrapping this piece of legislation. Not surprisingly, a lobbying group representing the dairy farming industry wrote this bill.
In areas surrounding dairy farms, the majority of residents rely on private wells for drinking water. Cow manure can leach through soil and pollute these wells with nitrates, which can not only make people very sick but also be deadly, even in small traces, for infants.
Even worse, it’s almost impossible to know if nitrates are in your water: You can’t see them, smell them, or boil them out.
While California residents will be able to protect themselves, the rest of the U.S. is at risk: The federal Clean Water Act protects only navigable water, and the Safe Drinking Water Act does not apply to private wells.
Sadly, this latest disgrace from the dairy industry comes as no surprise.
At dairy factory farms, cows are roughly handled, forcibly inseminated, and kept in terrible conditions. Calves are torn away from their mothers shortly after birth. Male calves are killed for veal. To produce more milk, females are trapped in a cycle of abuse for years until they are considered “spent and sent to slaughter.
Sounds terrible, right? Just watch this undercover video from a Mercy For Animals investigation in Colorado.
Join the millions of people who are boycotting this cruel industry by ditching dairy and all animal products and switching to a compassionate vegan diet. Click here to get started!