To take the abuse from dairy animals seriously is laughable (because other humans suffer in the world)To stop consuming animal products is the only real change you can make in the world. You vote with your money. Just by not adding dairy into your meals three times a day, you are already making a huge impact because the supply will go down as the demand does. It has already been addressed that someone cannot just simply cut out plants from their diet as it is necessary for us for our survival and health.
You can help people from undeveloped countries by signing petitions or doing seva in those countries but it is a continuous loop as there will always be poverty. By stop breeding billions of animals, all the crops we feed to live stock can be fed to poorer countries. I can go further but then I will just be repeating what has already been explained in my earlier posts.
You may think it is a joke but the extent and longevity of suffering that livestock animals has been through is incomparable to any human. Just think about for how long and the amount of animals have suffered and killed for us to experience a fleeting moment of taste.
There is no animal cruelty in my country/Dairy is scary is a myth (https://www.dairyfarmers.ca/farmers-voice/farming/milk-myths-debunked-dairy-is-scary-or-not)Why does everyone always believe their country is an exception to animal cruelty? The link you provided only proved that animal cruelty still occurs. I am not sure if you read the article yourself or that you are numb to animal cruelty just as modern dairy farmers are.
As mentioned in the blog you provided:
- Artificial insemination is still a practice used by dairy farmers
- The mother cow is still inseminated yearly. She claimed that’s how it naturally occurs for cows in the wild. However, there are no wild cows as they have been extinct long ago. Cattle has been evolved through domestication.
- The mother cow is impregnated at 15 months, not 12. That's not a massive difference.
- Taking the baby male calf away from the mother was still mentioned, in fact the blogger mentioned they are sent away to be raised for beef (after a week or so). She must have become insensitive to animal suffering because somehow she thinks sending the child of the mother away after a short while is better than sending them away immediately.
- Mother cows are still shipped away for slaughter. Cows life expectancy is at 25 years, however, the blogger has mentioned they are shipped for slaughter at 8-10 years.
The blogger claimed they take better care for baby calves than their mother. I am not sure how a human who only has interest in maximising profit for their dairy farms, sends the baby male calf away for beef (as they are useless for their industry) has better interests than the mother of the cow who would desire to keep the baby calf alive. (In fact even Gurbani mentions the bond between the mother cow and it's baby which is explained later).
No one should blindly believe anything on veganism, as I did not myself when I first heard of veganism. I did plenty of research but only found that artificial insemination, sending male calves away for slaughter is standard practices. Canada is no exception. You’ll even find recent debates between vegans and dairy farmers and dairy farmers never deny these practices. In fact they are only good at dodging questions. Here are a couple of recent short debates:
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www.youtube.com]
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www.youtube.com]
Even when you think about this realistically, there are over 30 million Canadians. There is always an increasing demand with the increasing population, they do not have the resource or time to be taking care of cows in these made up perfect conditions. Their business is about maximizing profit and the animals are just products of their business. If the animal is useless they are sent away for slaughter.
One cannot assume dairy industries are in perfect conditions when the world is driven by greed and money. If I told you egg industry or meat industry was cruel, no sikh here would argue as it fits into sikhi. If I were to tell you dairy industry is cruel, now all the Sikhs are denying facts and believe their country is an exception to this.
If anything, you should be pushing for veganism as it will destroy corrupt organizations that are making money from the life and suffering of animals. It is strange to be against a peaceful movement.
For those who have empathy for other species, you can watch a video by a former dairy farmer:
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www.youtube.com]
There are other jyot vigasi Sikhs that consume dairyTruth is, only a jyot vigasi sikh will know another jyot vigasi sikh. And another note, there are many levels of bharmgyan. You cannot know the truth and extent of Vaheguru when we are just a human, it will take a very long time.
For a sikh, they should never rely on the opinion or actions of another sikh that they believe are jyot vigasi. Instead you should be becoming or reaching for that level yourself so that you will know all truth and get answers from Guru Sahib.
Not consuming milk will get you to saachkhand.This is obvious. Not consuming milk will not get you to saachkhand, just as consuming milk will not get you to saachkhand. However, that does not mean we trample on the lives of other species unnecessarily on our path to saachkhand. To only think of one’s own benefit and not about the direct harm caused to others is selfish and un-sikh thinking. Why would selfish qualities attract Vaheguru to us? A true sikh does not actually desire to go to saachkhand but desire to be absorbed in the love of Vaheguru. To understand the love that needs to be given to Vaheguru is to have Daya. (I’ll explain this later, so please read on ;D ).
Sikhs have always been about helping other beings who are outside of our problems as we have done in many examples throughout history, where we have helped mulsims or hindus even though they provide no benefit to help us attain saachkhand.
Dairy farm animals may be outside of our problems, but they are not outside of our care or compassion. Society treats murderers, rapists far better than we have to livestock animals for centuries only because they do not speak our language and look different.
Veganism is a religionVeganism is just a lifestyle which refuses to partake in the direct and unnecessary harm to animals. It is not a religion. You may be seeing it like a religion because compassion to animals is alien to most people. There are many Christians and Muslims that are becoming vegan.
Arguing for Veganism is disrespecting Guru SahibNot once have I disrespected Guru Sahib. That is taking my arguments out of context. If dairy farms were not profit-driven and treated farm animals with care and respect, there probably would be no such thing as veganism.
The milk of institutionalised dairy farms you consume nowadays is not the same that was consumed during Guru Sahib’s time. No vegan cares about what was done over 100 years back. It is about the actions of the consumer now and the harm that is being caused.
Many rodents suffer from farming vegetationA lot of these are recycled arguments. I have already addressed these issues. But if you are concerned about the rodents that suffer from farming vegetables, then you should be vegan by default. By consuming dairy products, a large amount of rainforests are destroyed to feed livestock. Now just imagine how many animals went extinct because of this.
Suffering is part of the worldEven if suffering is a part of the world, that does not mean we need to unnecessarily cause suffering. Imagine if we used this argument to justify other cruel actions. We as a consumer are directly paying for the animals to suffer. Consuming dairy is not a necessity for the human body; in fact it is causing more health problems than it is good.
Your claim that milk causes osteoporosis is falseThe studies that you provide explain that acidity food is not bad for your bones. But it does not say that high acidity food, such as animal protein, is bad for your health. The following study shows that high consumption of milk was associated with mortality and fractures in women and men. [
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]. This article by Dr Gregor explains the milk consumption and osteoporosis correlation and references a number of sources: [
nutritionfacts.org]
Casomorphin is just sensationalised newsFirstly, your source only shows that it is not on the same level of addiction as a drug but still states that it has an opioid effect – it makes you feel good, so you want to come back to that feeling. That article also uses a dairy industry funded study and study on rats, which have a different biology than us. So, what stimulates a rat will be different for a human.
Secondly, the casomorphin are absorbed from digestion which this study shows [
efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com] In dairy, it is higher in morphin levels in cheese compared to normal dairy e.g. milk. But nonetheless, it still contains that morphin effect of opium and there is a book (The Cheese Trap) on the subject as well. It is also dangerous for infants due to the opioid effect - [
www.neuropeptidesjournal.com]
IGF1, Cancer from Animal Protein is “sensationalized media”IGF-1 at a normal level is healthy. However, animal protein triggers raised levels and high amounts of IGF1 in our liver which is unhealthy and cancer causing. This study shows that high amounts of IGF-1 causes cancer: [
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]. This is combined with high amounts of sex hormones. The Dairy and Meat also contains high amounts of estrogen, and estrogen is deemed to cause cancer as stated by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The amount of estrogen can be found here: [
www.sciencedirect.com]. The combination of both is explained here [
academic.oup.com] that leads to breast cancer in women. High levels of IGF-1 also creates Angiogenesis blood which feeds cancer. One last thing, this study shows how a plant-based diet decreases cancer growth and that cancer is more common in western countries due to their western diet [
www.hindawi.com].
Here is another study done in Japan, that showed introducing the western diet into their lifestyle of dairy, meat and egg after WW2 increased prostate cancer and death rates: [
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]. Both the estrogen and high saturated fats played a role in this. You should all already be aware of this that animal protein is high in saturated fats, which are bad fats. This study also shows correlation between milk and prostate cancer: [
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov].
There are many more studies, so none of this is “sensationalized media”. Everyone is already aware too that cholesterol is only found in animal protein I.e. dairy, egg and meat, and that it is the number one cause of heart disease. It also causes diabetes type 2 and colon cancer.
Thirdly, there will not be enough studies to support this because just like smoking, it went on for years where Doctors told people that it has no negative affect on your health, even in advertisements, because it made money. The British made money by selling opium to the Chinese, would the British then benefit by explaining to them how bad it is for them. In the same way, the dairy industry is benefiting so will hide this and will put money into studies to support the consumption of dairy.
Guru Sahib calls milk Amrit. ਲੰਗਰਿ ਦਉਲਤਿ ਵੰਡੀਐ ਰਸੁ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤੁ ਖੀਰਿ ਘਿਆਲੀ ॥The above shabad line was provided as a reference to explain why ghee is so important in Sikhi. However, all the line says is that the food made and provided by Gurmukh, Bibi Kheevee, is like amrit. This is not mean because the ghee itself is like amrit, but because a Gurmukh made it through purity and compassion. The cow was not an enslaved and tortured cow. If you do not believe these institutionalised cows are being tortured in the condition they live, you do not understand it and are not seeing it from the position of the animal.
Also, Gurbani uses metaphors to describe many things. For example, to praise Vaheguru he is called the dark-skinned Krishan, but then in another shabad Krishan is insulted (called a worm). This is just to give an idea of Vaheguru’s beauty so that we can understand it. In the same way, Saachkhand is named Vishnu’s realm (Baikunth) but it is not that, but it allows us to understand Saachkhand in a humanistic concept.
When Bhagat Kabeer Ji says those who consume fish will go to hell, is he only referring to fish? No, he is referring to all kinds of animals that have similar traits as a fish (a sentient being) e.g. brain, central nervous system, pain receptors etc.
So this does not conclude that ghee of dairy is compulsory.
Being so passionate to be compassionate to animals; seems a sickness. "MAS MAS KAR MOORAKH JHAGREY"That shabad you used is referring to the name of meat (flesh), not meat (animal) itself. Whenever Gurbani uses a word twice together, e.g. har har, it is referring to the name of Vaheguru, not Vaheguru himself. The Shabad is for Pandits that used to close their ears to the word flesh being spoken and call it evil. Why would the word flesh be evil when we are made out of it ourselves?
Compassion is positive attribute. But without the "life of spirit", it seems useless. It must be followed by GURU-WARD-ism or GOD-WARD-ism.Compassion in itself is never useless. According to Guru Sahib it is not useless too. Gurbani heavily emphasises on a number of virtues that we need to possess such as Truth, Compassion, Contentment, Humility, Dharam etc.
simaran bhajan dhiaa nahee keenee ta mukh chottaa khaahigaa ||2||
You do not remember the Lord, or vibrate upon Him in meditation, and you do not practice compassion; you shall be beaten on your face. ||2||
The word to describe compassion is daya, which is a Sanskrit word meaning to sympathise and to understand the suffering of the sufferer. In the above line, Guru Sahib says by not practicing both, jap of Naam and being compassionate that person will be beaten.
Our path to Vaheguru is to have love for Vaheguru, to be a partner of Vaheguru. Whenever Vaheguru is praised he is described as compassionate and that he protects all beings. Why would Vaheguru see you as a suitable partner if you lack the basic level of these qualities and do not care to progress in them, as Vaheguru has the highest. It is the same way when a human looks for a partner, you would look for a match for you.
Any PANKITI from Gurbani which supports that level of VEGANISM which prohibits milk and honey. And If we are rearing dairy animals with all care for their needs and pains ( Guru Nanak Dev Ji used to graze dairy animals; with all love and caring), then what is wrong in 'that' milk. If we are 'brotherly' with the calf; what is harm in sharing his/her mother's food; as a 'Sibling'. Is it not the justified way of living in harmony with nature. Is not living supportive to animals better than living away from animals.There is no reason for Gurbani to talk against milk, because obtaining milk itself from a cow does not cause harm to the cow. Gurbani already mentions (please search this yourself as there are many lines) of how a mother cow loves her calf, and the calf is in happiness when it sucks her udder, that the mother cow is lonely without her calf and that even when the mother cow is in a distance away her attention is focussed on her calf. In today’s modern society, all this is impossible. As the calf is taken away immediately and then raised to be slaughtered or caged/enslaved to produce milk for the masses. Nothing like Guru Sahib’s time.
Instead Gurbani reflects on compassion as a virtue to be practiced by the Sikh, as the Sikh needs to use his/her own virtues that are being practiced to understand what is right and what is wrong.
saramai dheeaa mu(n)dhraa ka(n)nee paai jogee khi(n)thhaa kar too dhiaa ||
Make humility your ear-rings, Yogi, and compassion your patched coat.
Do you think this world is run by saints? No, it is run by evil. The people in charge are deluded by Maya, which means they are driven by avguns. They do whatever is needed to make money but when direct suffering is acknowledged by you e.g. the dairy industry and you support them by paying them to continue to exploit these cows, enslave them, allow them to be slaughtered for meat after and cause the death of male calves.
A part of Bibek Budh is the virtue of Compassion, so Vaheguru has already given us the tool to understand what we need to be doing.
What is wrong in using skin from a dead animal for TABLA etc.If the animal is already dead from dying a natural death, then there is nothing wrong with using the skin. But if the animal is murdered for its skin, that is immoral. However, we have access to synthetic materials for tabla, so when it is unnecessary to continue to use animal skin why are we still using it? This gives people the chance to kill animals for that purpose to make money.