Dairy Cows & the Livestock Auction System
By the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s own records cull or ‘spent’ dairy cows spend on average 3 weeks in transportation from farm-of-origin to slaughter. This video, shot in Grunthal, Manitoba shows why. Federal transport regulations do not require cattle be provided with water for up to 57 hours, or food for up to 81 hours. No legislation exists ensuring these weakened animals – many of whom have just given birth (two cows in the video gave birth just 7 and 9 days before transportation to auction) be provided with water at auctions, so many auctions simply don’t provide it. Yet, lactating cows like these require 10X the amount of water they would normally require. Isn’t it the least we can do for these cows who’ve given us enormous quantities of milk?
21 Responses to Dairy Cows & the Livestock Auction System
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@theroaringbutterfly ..why dont you go work in an livestock auction mart and show everyone how its done!! Why dont you go after a slaughter house instead where they actually DO kill them!! why dont you go after hunters too and vets who put down your dying animal??? they are all responsible for death more than the grunthal livestock auction mart..
eschoenrock
February 25, 2012 at 10:03 am
@theroaringbutterfly if there were unjustice in these workplaces then where is the local public news…my dad does not cause pain or aid in the death of these animals so you need to get your facts straight..they carry a plastic paddle with beeds in it so they don’t have to hit an animal .they may tap them but its no different than a person spanking a child
eschoenrock
February 25, 2012 at 10:44 am
@luvarabhorse Bout time we tell them the true story, i dont raise dairy cows but i have nurse cows and about 1200 beef cows and dairy cows get treated well and so do beef cows
PSimmentals
February 25, 2012 at 11:42 am
Ok ladys so you know when they say fresh and firast calf heifer she sells for milk production old cows or cows that lack in milk production get sold for slaughter if you had an idea of what your talking about hes telling and talken about the cow if it waas a slaughter cow it would come in and be sold almost instintly get a life when u know the truth! Thanks City Girls
PSimmentals
February 25, 2012 at 11:50 am
I think it is a little silly for you to assume that a lot of producers send fresh cows to auction….Do you have any idea how incredibly rare that is? That is when cows are just beginning to give milk….Let me also mention that dairy cows lives peaceful lives at the farm. I’m sick and tired of everyone thinking dairy farmers don’t treat their cows with absolute respect. You can’t get rich dairy farming. You do it because you love working the cows and you respect them while they are on your farm
luvarabhorse
February 25, 2012 at 12:44 pm
this is sick
selena8379
February 25, 2012 at 1:43 pm
@eschoenrock I am sure your Father does his best. Unfortunately we are still living in an outdated system that creates such duress for these very sweet animals. The creation of farming perhaps had a time and place, but now it is time to move towards a new and kinder future for all beings. Nobody wants to feel badly about the life they have lived. And knowing one has been responsible for so much pain and death must weigh deeply on their soul.
theroaringbutterfly
February 25, 2012 at 2:04 pm
@bkaradimas Perhaps it’s time to shift to a greener and kinder way to make money. There are many vegetable crops that could be grown without the horror that animal farming produces.
theroaringbutterfly
February 25, 2012 at 3:03 pm
bkaradimas: I think the question of asking where old farm animals go is a good one: i.e. what do we do with spent hens, etc, when they’re done producing? What I think Twyla F is asking is this: why aren’t the auctions run more humanely? Where are the vets for the sick animals? Why are the cull cows in pain? These are also legitimate questions, and consumers should be asking them. Too much of all this stuff goes on without anybody knowing or caring to ask. It’s not about slandering
gripdoggy
February 25, 2012 at 3:50 pm
bkaradimas
We don’t need to consume dairy to be healthy. Even so, it’s extremely cruel to transport cows for such a length of time and to be without food and water. And as Twyla says there are a lot of “downers” that should be euthanised instead of put through the torture of long distance travel and auction.
fluffypolarcat
February 25, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Listen here lady….with the market today no one can keep around cull cows….they do not produce money so the only thing left is to auction them off to make food. if you care so much about the animals why don’t you start up a ranch, buy all the cull cows and raise them yourself….we’ll see how long that lasts with no income. No one can afford to keep these cows, feed them, for them to just walk around and moo. by the way, show your face instead of showing other people.
bkaradimas
February 25, 2012 at 4:24 pm
You can have all the opinions you want about the way animals are treated. You however do not get to put my father on your little video without his permission. You putting him on this video is slandering his good name, and that is casue for legal action if you do not remove his picture from your video footage. He does not abuse animals and in fact has taken home abused stray animals because he was sorry for them and wanted to give them a better life.
eschoenrock
February 25, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Straight does not mean straight to slaughter. Especially for the money that cow brought. Every buyer gets a number, in this case 522 and then the animals are penned out back according to an order number. This buyer chose to use straight instead of an order number because he only has one order. My guess is he is a farmer buying cows to put in his milking line.
NDcattleboy
February 25, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Dairy producers make 25% of their income off these ailing cows. The prices are so high because the meat from these cows is used to produce LEAN GROUND BEEF. Consumers have no idea about this and believe when they buy lean ground beef they are buying a healthier version of ground beef. It’s anything but.
TwylaFrancois
February 25, 2012 at 5:35 pm
@farmmo4ever actually, thats not entirely true. I live in a factory-farming community, and many people go to these auctions and pay even over 1500 for cows; some are females used to insemenate and/or produce large quantities of milk on dairy farms; after production slows and the hormones have no greater effects, they are shipped off to slaughter at the Cargill plant. So in *this* case, i wouldnt exactly refer to that pathetic life we give them as a “farm”. We exploit them either way, period.
43Coda
February 25, 2012 at 5:36 pm
I just watched one of these auctions in peron. Pretty smelly if you ask me.
supersmash43
February 25, 2012 at 6:18 pm
they are dairy cattle. in order to get milk you have to breed them and to keep the calves from drinking all of the milk they are taken away and turned into what you would call a bottle calf they are fed a milk replacement whitch is a formula close to their mothers milk thry are not abusing these cattle bc it is normal to see the hip bones of dairy cattle bc they are so big so that they can handle the weight of the udder.
skylerdriggers
February 25, 2012 at 6:52 pm
The cull dairy cow industry has a term for these skinny, ailing cows: C3 – CLUNKERS, CANNERS, AND CRIPPLES.
TwylaFrancois
February 25, 2012 at 7:37 pm
That said, many producers completely wear out their cows – especially in Ontario. At large auctions there you’ll see 10-15 cows that have to be euthanized because their suffering is too great. Many of these are “downers” – too sick, diseased or injured to stand on their own.
Now that the US border has reopened to Canadian cattle there’s an incentive to bring cows in in any condition as even the very sick still bring a high dollar ($750 for even skinny cows).
TwylaFrancois
February 25, 2012 at 8:31 pm
Unfortunately almost all cull or spent dairy cows taken to auction are bought by slaughterhouses. They are seen as worthless – milked to the point where their bones have become osteoporotic from calcium being leached from them. They become so prone to fractures that it’s more economical for the producer to sell her broken-down body while she can still make it to auction.
TwylaFrancois
February 25, 2012 at 8:48 pm
oh my gosh! thats so sad, it made me reallly sad when they yelled STRAIGHT!!! did all the cows here go to the slaughter house? Or did anyone ACTUALLY buy them? and i could NOT understand what he was saying? What were the prices? were they high?
bumblebee29712
February 25, 2012 at 9:15 pm