According to the LA Times, an extreme heat wave in California has caused the deaths of over 6,000 cows in recent weeks.
While local officials are worried about how to dispose of the carcasses, they’re not the slightest bit concerned that these cows were clearly neglected, nor are they troubled by the fact that these innocent animals suffered for days in the sweltering heat and died from dehydration and heat stroke. This is truly appalling.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time cows have died from hot weather on dairy farms in the San Joaquin Valley. A similar crisis in 2006 killed 1,834 cows in Kings County.
Unlike companion animals, who by law must be included in government evacuation plans during natural disasters and extreme weather, farmed animals are afforded no legal protection. Last fall tens of thousands of chickens, pigs, and other farmed animals were left to drown in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. And just last year more than 35,000 dairy cows froze to death in a blizzard in Texas.
But forcing cows to die of exposure is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to abusing and torturing cows for dairy.
At modern farms, cows are roughly handled, forcibly inseminated, and kept in despicable conditions. Calves are torn away from their mothers shortly after birth. Males are killed for veal. Females are used for milk, trapped in a cycle of abuse for years until they are considered “spent and sent to slaughter.
Heartbreaking, right? Just watch this undercover video from a Mercy For Animals investigation in Colorado.
No animal deserves to be treated like this. We can fight against such blatant abuse by boycotting the industry and switching to a compassionate vegan diet. Click here to get started.
