{"id":60864,"date":"2016-11-22T05:05:09","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T12:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=60864"},"modified":"2016-11-22T05:05:09","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T12:05:09","slug":"lessons-in-right-livelihood-from-dairy-industry-new-zealand-earthquake-tsunami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/11\/22\/lessons-in-right-livelihood-from-dairy-industry-new-zealand-earthquake-tsunami\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons in Right livelihood from Dairy Industry & New Zealand earthquake & tsunami"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shenali D Waduge<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/b>On 13<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> November 2016 New Zealand was struck by an earthquake immediately followed by a tsunami. The news came after a series of exposures on the New Zealand dairy industry and the cruelty inflicted upon cows. In Nepal immediately after the Gadhima festival that killed close to 300,000 animals a devastating earthquake struck. In Pakistan too hundreds of dogs were killed and their dead bodies were thrown on the roads, no sooner a suicide bomb left an entire generation of lawyers killed in one city. Japan is one of 10 countries which is cruel to animals and constantly faces earthquakes and tsunamis. The manner that nature punishes for destroying elements of nature comes unannounced and is catastrophic. The 2004 tsunami affected countries across Asia and even Africa. Nature\u2019s message beckons us to rethink morality and ethics applying not only to humans but to animals as well and questions right livelihood and the need to develop greater harmony with nature and compassion for all. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These two photos capture how nature protects its own following the New Zealand earthquake wherein no harm has come to the cows.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"shenali22111601\"<\/a>According to eastern dharmic religions, humans and all elements of nature remain sacred. Buddhism in particular promotes all sentient beings including animals to be treated humanely. The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christiantiy and Islam are more human-centred religions. Over the years new religious customs have ended in immeasurable cruelty towards animals making believers believe that God rewards those that sacrifice animals in His name and offers blood of an animal in the name of God. Would any God supposed to have created the world demand that they kill that which He has created?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless Blood Fiestas are the norm throughout the world to celebrate saint days by torturing animals \u2013 donkeys are beaten, paraded and crushed in Spain, goats are paraded and thrown from the church tower, chickens are hung and have their heads pulled off. The Old Testament is full of such blood rituals. <\/span>References to animal sacrifice appear in the New Testament, such as the parents of Jesus sacrificing two doves (Luke 2:24) and the Apostle Paul performing a Nazirite vow even after the death of Christ (Acts 21:23-26). <\/span><\/i>Muslims during Hajj pilgrimage sacrifice lamb\/goat, camel, cow during Eid al-Adha and millions of animals are sacrificed for this. <\/span><\/i>Hindus hold goat sacrifices for Shakti. Goats are also sacrificed for Durga pooja. The cruelty that these animals go through knows no words to describe. These are religious related cruelty. However, cruelty takes shape at another angle for profit. The dairy industry is one such.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dairy farming is basically high producing dairy cows. From ancient practice of hand milking cows, twice a day inside a barn has now \u2018advanced\u2019 to the use of all types of machines, cows injected with hormones, with no qualms about separating calves from their lactating mothers and the immoral methods adopted that should make people rethink taking dairy milk. Every glass of milk you drink is a glass of cruelty filled with inhumanity. <\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cruelty in the dairy industry is shocking and questions the value of profit from the pain given to another life. It questions how people can consciously forcibly and artificially impregnate cows through artificial insemination each year to produce milk? How ethical is it to rip a baby from its mother knowing the calf is wailing with grief. Is it no different to a baby ripped apart from its human mother? These mother cows cry for their babies for days. These calves are thrown into trucks driven thousands of miles away and slaughtered. We have UN agencies working on baby rackets but why are they silent on the sufferings of these calves? Over 2million calves just 4 days old are sent to slaughter<\/b> (that\u2019s the total Tamil population living in Sri Lanka!).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.farmwatch.org.nz\/born-to-die.html<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Farmwatch has exposed the tortures of New Zealand\u2019s 2million bobby calves whose life lasts just 4 days. How would a mother feel if her baby was taken away days after delivery, killed and dumped? Would a mother like to have her helpless baby being violently kicked, hit and thrown like these helpless calves before having their throats slit? Can nations that allow such atrocities qualify to be preaching human rights?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/milkiscruel.com\/<\/span><\/a> (a disgusting cruel video footage questioning how human we are)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/safe.org.nz\/nz-dairy-industry-exposed<\/span><\/a> When you watch the video the first thought that comes to mind is why can\u2019t these men who work on these farms find better and more humane employment without treating animals just 4 days old in such an inhumane way. It was Buddha who promoted right livelihood. With the manner nature is striking with venom it is a perfect time to rethink of earning a living, making profit while not harming or hurting other sentient beings including animals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.indexmundi.com\/agriculture\/?commodity=cattle&graph=calf-slaughter<\/span><\/a><\/span> )\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fate of some calves is worse \u2013 they are said to be kept isolated for 3 months and killed for veal. How many sitting to enjoy a \u2018good veal\u2019 on their plate know that they are eating a calf kept isolated from its mother and then killed? <\/span><\/p>\n

The suffering of their mothers get worse. The artificial impregnation and the forced production of milk make them suffer arthritis, mastitis of their teats and other painful ailments. When they can live 25-30 years their life is cut short and ends in 4-5years. Their fate ends up inside your hamburger.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Environment too is impacted \u2013 waterways are polluted, methane produced by animal farming affects global warming.<\/span><\/p>\n

If anyone watching these videos does not feel nauseated by the cruelty they witness by the violence inflicted upon innocent cows they are not worthy to be called humans. <\/span><\/p>\n

How can any company be happy making a living and enjoying profits by causing such inhuman and vicious harm to beings that cannot speak but still have the same senses all humans possess? They feel, they cry with pain, they hurt, they are emotional, they love their family, their children just like us humans. Why are we then being so cruel to them?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Produces 21.3billion litres of milk annually.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Has over 5million cows<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>1.8million hectares land used by dairy industry. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>4.379 litres of milk is produced per cow per year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The immediate response is that milk is needed. If so, does it have to be milk stolen from a cow who wants to give it to her calf? There are enough of alternative milks \u2013 almond milk, soya milk etc. The moral question is \u2026 is it worth drinking dairy milk knowing it is coming to you through a cycle of pain that of both mother and child?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The next question is \u2013 is dairy milk really healthy? <\/span>The countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk and have the most calcium in their diets.\u201d So says <\/span><\/i>Amy Lanou Ph.D., nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, today\u2019s milk is really another processed food. Milking cows are given antibiotics and most are also injected with a genetically engineered form of bovine growth hormone (rBGH). A man-made or synthetic hormone used to artificially increase milk production, rBGH also increases blood levels of the insulin-growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in those who drink it. And higher levels of IGF-1 are linked to several cancers. This next raises the question of whether we want to force cows to undergo untold cruelty including separating it from its calf to eventually end up drinking processed milk that is not even nutritious but could even be harmful to us? These are thoughts that should enter everyone\u2019s mind and help re-evaluate their position on being part of the demand-supply chain that invariably leads countries and companies to make money from a wrong livelihood and inadvertently contribute to their bad karma.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can we not find better ways of making a living other than make profits from cruelty?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nature has a way of sending messages and it is upto us to decipher these, learn lessons and re-adjust our attitude and thinking.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-3340565\/Shocking-video-shows-New-Zealand-dairy-farmers-bashing-kicking-throwing-four-day-old-calves-regarded-trash-bloodied-concrete-floors.html<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MDA3gzvdk-w<\/span><\/a> Cruelty in New Zealand dairy industry<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.radionz.co.nz\/news\/national\/290865\/shocking-video-of-dairy-industry-emerges<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

http:\/\/nzdairy.webs.com\/<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge\u00a0 On 13th November 2016 New Zealand was struck by an earthquake immediately followed by a tsunami. The news came after a series of exposures on the New Zealand dairy industry and the cruelty inflicted upon cows. In Nepal immediately after the Gadhima festival that killed close to 300,000 animals a devastating earthquake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}