Animal Welfare Through an Animal Activist’s Eyes

Putting a dairy farmer and an animal activist in the same room might sound like an argument waiting to happen, but perhaps it’s not such a bad idea. When it comes to animal welfare, could it be possible that activists may actually be able to help improve certain areas of concern within the dairy industry?

During a recent Dairy Cattle Welfare Council webinar, Lauri Torgerson-White, an animal welfare scientist and research director at Farm Sanctuary, gave her opinion on three of her largest concerns in relation to animal welfare within the dairy industry.

“I don’t think any of the [animal welfare] issues that I bring up are going to be surprising to anyone,” Torgerson-White says. “I think these are the things that if you look around your farm and say ‘What sort of things do I want to hide from the public? What sorts of images would I not want to put on the packaging of a milk container at the grocery store?’ Those are going to be the welfare issues.”

The Big Three

1. Individual Calf Housing

One of the first concerns Torgerson-White discussed was the fact that most of the calves brought up within the U.S. are raised individually.

“I think we all know cattle and calves are social animals, and in a perfect world [calves] would be able to be with their mothers,” Torgerson-White says. “But since they can’t be in the dairy industry, [calves] at least need to be with other calves.”

While raising calves individually still remains as the most prominent form of calf raising in the U.S., more producers have begun to transition to group and paired systems, and consumers seem to approve of this change. According to Torgerson-White, a recent study from the Journal of Dairy Science found that half of people surveyed did not approve of single housing for calves.

“I see that the dairy industry is starting to move [more towards group or paired housing] already,” Torgerson-White says. “For reasons for the calf and because, honestly, the public doesn’t approve of [individual calf housing.]”

While individual calf housing does have its benefits, group and paired housing systems offer up a variety of betterments as well.

“Calves are healthier, grow faster, it is more economical, and the welfare is much better [when calves are raised in groups or pairs,]”  says webinar co-host Jim Reynolds, a professor at the Western University of Health Sciences “It is being adopted by many dairies in the United States already, so the uptake is starting to increase.” 

2. Tiestall Barns

Another concern of Torgerson-White is the use of tiestall facilities in smaller dairy operations.

“When cows are tied up for most of their lives, they experience a lot of behavioral problems,” Torgerson-White says. “Their movement is obviously restricted; they often can’t lie down properly, and their social behavior is completely restricted.”

Though she recognizes that there is no easy fix for producers who still utilize tiestall facilities and that tiestalls only make up a small percentage of U.S. dairy’s total herd population, there is a welfare concern nevertheless.

“[Cows] have a true desire to go outside, be outside, walk, graze and socialize, so we need to in the future start developing and remodeling our housing to fit the cow rather than fit the people,” Reynolds says.

While it’s clear that renovating a tiestall operation would be a huge finical undertaking, Reynolds suggested one temporary solution to this concern. When weather permits, he recommends letting animals out to pasture to roam and graze freely.

3. Bull Calf Treatment

The last major animal welfare concern Torgerson-White mentioned was the treatment of bull calves.

“I think there are lots of issues surrounding the way bull calves are treated, especially during transport,” Torgerson-White says. “Some of these animals are transported at such a young age that they are unable to stand up well. Stocking densities need to be changed aboard the trucks, there needs to be more bedding and they need to be fed.”

Additionally, Torgerson-White was trouble by the immediate culling of jersey bull calves on some dairy operations.

“Jersey bull calves, because they aren’t worth as much financially, are sometimes being culled on farm through blunt force trauma, which is not an appropriate or effective way to kill a calf because of the thickness of their skull,” Torgerson-White says. “If they are going to be killed, they need to be effectively stunned first so that they’re not suffering.

Reynolds, who has done a significant amount of research on euthanasia, agreed with this allegation.

“There’s quite a bit of technical difficulties to [euthanizing calves,]” Reynolds says. “It’s difficult, but we need to talk about these things without threatening or challenging people. It’s something we need to address and work on rather than just not talking about it.”

One possible course of action producers could take to minimize the number of bull calves born on the farm is to utilize more sexed semen, according to Reynolds. He also proposes breeding lower producing dairy cows to beef bulls to create a useable product for consumers later down the line.

It’s Not All Bad News

While there is still a drastic difference in opinions when it comes to animal activists and farmers, both can acknowledge that animal welfare within the dairy industry has made some improvements over the years.
 

“The biggest thing that has improved is the attitude towards animal welfare and the awareness surrounding animal welfare,” Torgerson-White says. “Being aware of what animal welfare is – that it’s going beyond just health and including the emotional, inner lives of animals – is where we are starting to see some improvement.”

While it’s unlikely that dairy farmers and animal activists will ever see completely eye to eye, there is a common goal shared between the pair: Do what’s best for the animal.

“I think what [animal activists] are looking for here, you know, is not to blame the farmer,” Torgerson-White says. “We all just want to provide for our families, and that’s what they’re doing. [We need to] figure out a food system that works for everyone involved. One that works for the animals, that works for the [farmer], that works for the people being fed and one that works for the earth.”