Imagine a life in which,from the moment you are conceived until your
dying day, you are treated simply as a machine and required to give
everything you can possibly give,only to be brutally murdered after
outliving your usefulness to someone. This is the stark reality of a
dairy cow’s existence.
Informed viewers,welcome to Animal
World: Our Co-Inhabitants.Today on the Stop Animal Cruelty series we
will examine the lives of humble, gentle dairy cows and the misery
behind milk.
Four young US filmmakers recently discovered the
truth behind milk by travelling across the country visiting ranches and
farms and interviewing many in the dairy industry for the eye-opening
documentary 『Got the Facts on Milk?』 which is scheduled for release in
the spring of 2010.
In an interview with Supreme Master
Television, director, producer and writer Shira Lane,and sound mixer
Jennifer Ricciardi, both of whom are vegans,shared how making the film
transformed their lives.
Shira: I
used to be a huge carnivore. But as soon as we did this documentary,I
have to say this documentary made me more than I made the documentary
because I just can't touch it.I know what it does to my body.
I know what it does to the environment.
Supreme Master TV: And you went straight to vegan?
Jennifer: All of us went straight to vegan, yes.
HOST: The filmmakers were particularly horrified by the sordid, sickening environment in which cows live.
Jennifer:
As we would go out to some of these ranches and these dairy farms,I was
amazed at the conditions that the animals live in. They're standing in
their own feces all day.
And they can't walk around -- a couple
of feet on either side. How is that healthy? How can you look at those
animals and say,『That's correct, that's the way we should treat other
living beings?』
HOST: Ms. Lane and Ms. Ricciardi were also
deeply disturbed when they discovered that cows are made to
continuously produce milk.
Shira:
Well, a cow has to be pregnant every year to give us milk, just like a
female mother needs to be pregnant to give milk. And then that calf is
taken away from her, so the calf will not drink the milk that is
supposed to go for human consumption, right? So the calf is separated
from his mom...
it's a horrible feeling. The mother is feeling
horrible because she is separated. The calf stands in its own feces,
and can barely turn around;you see hundreds and hundreds of calves like
these.