#Dairy cow exploitation

[terminabense]

  "Factory Farming: Cruelty Impacting Humans, Animals, and the Planet"

Factory farming, the industrialized production of livestock, has dire consequences for humans, animals, and the planet. For animals, it means a life of suffering in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, often without access to natural behaviors or environments. Chickens, pigs, and cows endure unimaginable stress, injuries, and premature deaths, all for the sake of maximizing efficiency and profit.

For humans, factory farming poses significant health risks. The overuse of antibiotics in livestock to promote growth and prevent disease leads to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, posing a serious threat to public health. Workers in these facilities face dangerous conditions, exposure to harmful chemicals, and exploitative labor practices. Furthermore, communities near factory farms suffer from polluted air and water, leading to respiratory problems and other health issues.

Environmentally, factory farming is a major contributor to climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. It generates large amounts of greenhouse gases, particularly methane from cattle, which significantly impacts global warming. Additionally, the industry consumes vast quantities of water and contributes to soil degradation and water pollution through runoff of animal waste and chemicals.

In summary, factory farming's quest for profit comes at an enormous cost to animal welfare, human health, and the environment. Sustainable and humane alternatives are essential for a healthier, more ethical future.

[oediex]

guess what will probably happen to them

it's a lot less cute

[reasonsforhope]

"This week was a big win for animals across Mexico.

On December 2, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a set of constitutional reforms that will pave the way for a comprehensive federal animal welfare law. The changes represent the first-ever mention of nonhuman animals in the Mexican Constitution, marking a milestone achievement for Mexico’s animal rights movement, which has for years been drawing attention to pervasive animal cruelty and extreme confinement in the country’s growing meat industry.

“This is huge,” says Dulce Ramirez, executive director of Animal Equality Mexico and the vice president of Animal Equality’s Latin American operations. These constitutional changes come after two years of campaigning by animal advocacy organizations, including Igualdad Animal Mexico, Humane Society International/Mexico (HSI/Mexico), and Movimiento Consciencia.

These reforms are internationally unique. While national animal protection laws aren’t uncommon, most countries have no mention of animals in their Constitutions. Constitutions are “a reflection of socially where we are,” Angela Fernandez, a law professor at the University of Toronto, told Vox, making any constitutional reform symbolically a big deal.

Beyond Mexico, nine countries include references to animals in their Constitutions, but those mentions have generally been brief and open to interpretation. “Mexico is different,” Kristen Stilt, faculty director at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Program, told Vox. “It’s longer, it’s more specific. It’s in several provisions. It’s not just a general statement.”

Plenty of countries have laws against animal mistreatment, including the US, where all 50 states have an anti-cruelty law, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been particularly effective at stopping violence against animals. Part of the problem is that these laws very often exempt farmed animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens, thereby excluding from protection the overwhelming majority of animals that suffer at human hands. That’s where Mexico’s reforms stand out: They’re intended to protect all animals, including farmed animals and other exploited species.

The reforms in Mexico, the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country, represent a major advancement in the status of animals globally. It could set a precedent for other countries in Latin America, where a vibrant animal rights movement has emerged in recent years, said Macarena Montes Franceschini, a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Program.

Still, as one of the world’s top producers of beef, chicken, pork, dairy, and eggs, Mexico has an intensive animal agriculture industry much like the US, says Antón Aguilar, HSI/Mexico’s executive director. Business interests will undoubtedly want to influence the writing of animal welfare laws that could impact their bottom lines, as they have in the US and elsewhere. The question now is what changes the constitutional reforms will really bring to animal law in Mexico, and how effective they will be.

What will these reforms do?

The reforms comprise changes to three separate articles of Mexico’s Constitution. The most foundational change amends the Constitution’s Article 73, which dictates what Congress has the authority to legislate on. The article now gives the federal government the power to issue laws on animal welfare and protection.

Previously, animal welfare was largely left up to local and state authorities, and the result has been uneven laws and enforcement across the country. While all states in Mexico have animal protection legislation, just three include farmed animals: Hidalgo, Colima, and as of last month, Oaxaca, following pressure from animal advocates. And though Mexico does have a federal law on animal health that focuses on farmed animals and includes some broad mentions of animal welfare, it was created to protect human health rather than animals. The same goes for Mexico’s federal wildlife law, which was written with a focus on sustainability and conservation, rather than on protecting individual animals from cruelty.

Perhaps the most significant part of the reforms is an amendment to Article 4 of Mexico’s Constitution prohibiting the mistreatment of animals and directing the Mexican state to guarantee the protection, adequate treatment, and conservation and care of animals. The language is broad, Ramirez says, but she sees it as a substantial improvement over existing animal welfare laws. She and other advocates worked to ensure that no animals were excluded, particularly given that farmed animals have historically been left out of animal protection.

“It’s really, really important in Mexico to start with this first step — but a big one — because now it’s all animals” that are covered, Ramirez said.

The changes to Articles 4 and 73 tee up the creation of federal legislation on animal welfare. Under these reforms, Mexico’s Congress has been directed to write a first-of-its-kind General Law of Animal Welfare, Care, and Protection, a comprehensive bill that would address and develop regulations preventing the mistreatment of all types of animals, including farmed animals, wildlife, animals in laboratories, and companion animals, Aguilar said.

This general animal welfare law will need to consider animals’“nature, characteristics and links with people,” according to the reform decree released last week. What does this actually mean? Ramirez gave the example of chickens: Part of the natural behavior of these animals is to be able to spread their wings and move around. But if chickens are stuck in cages, as is standard practice on egg factory farms, they can’t do either of those things. Now, the idea is to develop legal criteria that would consider the ability to express these natural behaviors as part of their welfare. (The language could also be interpreted to prioritize human needs, however — particularly the reference to animals’ “links with people.” Animal Equality said it would interpret this through an animal welfare lens, and with the word “link” invoking what humans owe animals.)

Finally, Article 3 of Mexico’s Constitution, which pertains to the education system, was also amended to require that animal welfare be included in school curricula for grade school and high school students. Aguilar said this change could help “attitudes shift and change in a very enduring, long-term way” for future generations. But the new constitutional language is unspecific, and the devil is in the details.

What’s next for animal welfare in Mexico

Advocates in Mexico have two focuses going forward, Ramirez and Aguilar said: shaping the general animal welfare bill into a strong piece of legislation, and working with the Ministry of Education to get meaningful implementation of animal welfare into the national curriculum."

[acti-veg]

Leather vs. Pleather: 8 Myths Debunked

Since we are all beyond tired of seeing the same regurgitated leather posts every day, I've compiled and briefly debunked some of the most common myths peddled about leather and pleather… So hopefully we can all move on to talk about literally anything else.

1) Leather is not sustainable.

Approximately 85% of all leather (almost all leather you'll find in stores) is tanned using chromium. During the chrome tanning process, 40% of unused chromium salts are discharged in the final effluents, which makes it's way into waterways and poses a serious threat to wildlife and humans. There are also significant GHG emissions from the sheer amount of energy required to produce and tan leather.

Before we even get the cow's hide, you first need to get them to slaughter weight, which is a hugely resource-intensive process. Livestock accounts for 80% of all agricultural land use, and grazing land for cattle likely represents the majority of that figure. To produce 1 pound of beef (and the subsequent hide), 6-8 pounds of feed are required. An estimated 86% of the grain used to feed cattle is unfit for human consumption, but 14% alone represents enough food to feed millions of people. On top of that, one-third of the global water footprint of animal production is related to cattle alone. The leather industry uses greenwashing to promote leather as an eco-friendly material. Leather is often marketed as an eco-friendly product, for example, fashion brands often use the Leather Working Group (LWG) certificate to present their leather as sustainable. However, this certification (rather conveniently) does not include farm-level impacts, which constitute the majority of the negative environmental harm caused by leather.

2) Leather is not just a byproduct.

Some cows are raised speciifically for leather, but this a minority and usually represents the most expensive forms of leather. This does not mean that leather is just a waste product of beef and dairy, or that it is a completely incidental byproduct; it is more accurate to call leather a tertiary product of the beef and dairy industries. Hides used to fetch up to 50% of the total value of the carcass, this has dropped significantly since COVID-19 to only about 5-10%, but this is recovering, and still represents a significant profit margin. Globally, leather accounts for up to 26% of major slaughterhouses’ earnings. Leather is inextricably linked to the production of beef and dairy, and buying leather helps make the breeding, exploitation and slaughter of cows and steers a profitable enterprise.

3) Leather is not as biodegradable as you think.

Natural animal hides are biodegradable, and this is often the misleading way leather that sellers word it. "Cow hide is fully biodegradable" is absolutely true, it just purposely leaves out the fact that the tanning process means that the hide means that leather takes between 25 and 40 years to break down. Even the much-touted (despite it being a tiny portion of the market) vegetable-tanned leather is not readily biodegradable. Since leather is not recyclable either, most ends up incinerated, or at landfill. The end-of-life cycle and how it relates to sustainability is often massively overstated by leather sellers, when in fact, it is in the production process that most of the damage is done.

4) Leather is not humane.

The idea that leather represents some sort of morally neutral alternative to the evils of plastic is frankly laughable, at least to anyone who has done even a little bit of research into this exploitative and incredibly harmful industry. Cows, when properly cared for, can live more than fifteen years. However, most cows are usually slaughtered somewhere around 2-3 years old, and the softest leather, most luxurious leather comes from the hide of cows who are less than a year old. Some cows are not even born before they become victim to the industry. Estimates vary, but according to an EFSA report, on average 3% of dairy cows and 1.5 % of beef cattle, are in their third-trimester of pregnancy when they are slaughtered.

Slaughter procedures vary slightly by country, but a captive bolt pistol shot to the head followed by having their throats slit, while still alive, is standard industry practice. This represents the “best” a slaughtered cow can hope for, but many reports and videos exist that suggest that cows still being alive and conscious while being skinned or dismembered on the production line is not uncommon, some of these reports come from slaughterhouse workers themselves.

5) Leather often involves human exploitation.

The chemicals used to tan leather, and the toxic water that is a byproduct of tanning, affect workers as well as the environment; illness and death due to toxic tanning chemicals is extremely common. Workers across the sector have significantly higher morbidity, largely due to respiratory diseases linked to the chemicals used in the tanning process. Exposure to chromium (for workers and local communities), pentachlorophenol and other toxic pollutants increase the risk of dermatitis, ulcer nasal septum perforation and lung cancer.

Open Democracies report for the Child Labour Action Research Programme shows that there is a startlingly high prevalence of the worst forms of child labour across the entire leather supply chain. Children as young as seven have been found in thousands of small businesses processing leather. This problem is endemic throughout multiple countries supplying the global leather market.

6) Pleather is not a ‘vegan thing’.

Plastic clothing is ubiquitous in fast fashion, and it certainly wasn’t invented for vegans. Plastic leather jackets have been around since before anyone even knew what the word vegan meant, marketing department have begun describing it as ‘vegan leather’ but it’s really no more a vegan thing than polyester is. Most people who wear pleather are not vegan, they just can’t afford to buy cow’s leather, which remains extremely expensive compared to comparable fabrics.

It is striking how anti-vegans consistently talk about how ‘not everyone can afford to eat plant-based’ and criticise vegans for advocating for veganism on that basis, yet none of them seem to mind criticisms directed at people for wearing a far cheaper alternative than leather. You can obviously both be vegan and reduce plastic (as we all should), but vegans wear plastic clothing for the same reason everyone else does: It is cheaper.

7) Plastic is not the only alternative.

When engaging in criticism of pleather, the favourite tactic seems to be drawing a false dilemma where we pretend the only options are plastic and leather. Of course, this is a transparent attempt to draw the debate on lines favourable to advocates of leather, by omitting the fact that you can quite easily just buy neither one.

Alternatives include denim, hemp, cork, fiber, mushroom fiber, cotton, linen, bamboo, recycled plastic, and pinatex, to name a few. Alternatives exist for everything from materials designed to ensure sub-zero temperatures and specialist motorcycle equipment. There are exceptions in professions like welding, where an alternative can be difficult to source, but nobody needs a jacket, shoes or a bag that looks like leather. For most of us, leather is a luxury item that doesn’t even need to be replaced at all.

If you'd like to see a detailed summary of the comparison between leather/wool and plastic, as well as the available alternatives, you can find that here.

8) Leather is not uniquely long-lasting.

The longevity of leather is really the only thing it has going for it, environmentally speaking. Replacing an item less often means fewer purchases, and will likely have a lower environmental impact than one you have to replace regularly. Leather is not unique in this respect, however, and the idea that it is, is mostly just effective marketing.

As your parents will tell you, a well-made denim jacket can last a lifetime. Hemp and bamboo can both last for decades, as can cork and pinatex. Even cotton and linen can last for many years when items are looked after well. While some materials are more hard wearing than others, how long an item will last is mostly the result of how well made the product is and how well it is maintained, not whether or not the item is leather.

[andalon-historian]

Great explanation of how American dairy is even more fucked up than most dairy (including mass market American dairy being even more fucked up than other regions' mass market dairy, which is de facto fucked up). If you're an average American, getting remotely ethical dairy (even by *your* standards) will be a lot harder and more expensive than just abstaining. Just abstain. You almost certainly don't need dairy products.

Is there beef with the Holstein cows and you or what was that joke lol

It's kind of wild It's just never come up on this blog before, but I HATE holsteins. Bottom 10 cow breeds for me. I hate how they're so common they account for the majority of milk produced. I hate that they're the "default" cow to the point where some don't even know cattle HAVE other colors. I hate their tiny horns (IF THEY EVEN HAVE THAT. LOSER ASS HORNLESS COW) and their painfully massive udders.

Legit I'm trying so hard to not launch into a No Mouth Must Scream style AM speech-- shoot my hand slipped.

(AM speech about why i dont like holsteins below the cut)

For starters, I have to give a brief lesson on what these terms mean; the "Holstein" is the American strain of the "Frisian" breed. Frisians are an ancient breed from Frisia, in the north of what we now consider the Netherlands. Crosses between the breeds are "Holstein-Frisians."

(There’s even more to this but im keeping it as simple as possible. Also one of my friends is Frisian and she is probably going to kill me for describing it like that.)

Historically, livestock was adapted to the environment they lived in. Frisians were bred by the Frisii people for hundreds of years in extremely grass-rich, lush, flat environments. The "polders" of the northern parts of the Netherlands. They're huge and eat a LOT of food.

Traditional Frisians were developed to produce as much meat and milk from a single individual as possible, without compromising the health of the cattle with constant inbreeding to get quick gains. We are talking about a breed that is over 2000 years old. They had the perfect environment to make The Ultimate Food Cow and by god they did it. I can respect that.

So, take that, drag it across an ocean to a place that does NOT have polders, and add the rapid enshittification of capitalism to it. BAM you've got a fucking holstein.

There is ONE goal for "improving" the holstein. Make More Milk. As long as the black and white milkbag leaks enough, nothing else matters. Health? Fertility? Feed ratio? Ability to not die of infection? WHO CARES. MILK LINE GO UP.

Over 90% of holsteins are inbred to start with, because Milk Line Go Up. To the tune of having an average COI of 8%-- where extreme negative effects (think Hapsburgs) start to crop up around 10%

Holstein bulls are aggressive bastards (many dairy bulls are), so no one wants to keep intact males in their herds, meaning most cows are artificially inseminated

Not being limited by the natural lifespan of a living bull means that the same stud can keep having direct offspring for decades after his death

Toystory the bull had 500,000 calves before he died, and hit over 1 million offspring in 2015. That's ONE animal and to put this in perspective, there are 9 million holsteins in the US.

DON'T WORRY IT GETS WORSE

Not only can 99% of holsteins be traced back to just two bulls-- 99% of male holsteins share one of two exact Y chromosomes with those two bulls.

The gene pool is so small that it's equivalent to about 60 individuals. Warrior Cat allegiances are larger than that. That's barely bigger than modern ThunderClan.

"Massive lack of genetic diversity" does not begin to capture the existential dread of this situation. Mark my words, WATCH, when the Bird Flu finally mutates a strain that rips through a mammalian population, it's gonna be in the USA and it's going to be through our dairy cattle.

This is not prophecy or me laying a curse on the land, this is the natural consequence of basing the stability of US milk production on the equivalent of 9 million clones of two classrooms worth of individuals, and then packing them in close quarters

And we don't have to wait for doomsday for the impacts to be apparent on the cattle themelves

Holstein fertility has also dropped by half since the 1960s when the intensive inbreeding really kicked into high gear

Because their whole body is dedicating all of their resources to milk production, they have a notoriously "bony" frame.

Show judges, however, like this because they think that's a very "feminine" look for a 1600 pound ruminant. Very normal thing to think.

Like. I don't know if i can communicate this to people who don't look at cows a lot (it's not quite as obviously dramatic as a pug skull) but here is a comparison of an "ideal" show holstein and an "unselected" holstein from a herd that's been established as a sort of "control group" for what they looked like back in the 1960s;

The way that the artery on the "modern" cow's belly runs to the udder like a big pink worm freaks me out the most ngl

The udder also bulges out from between the back legs

The show cow is so thin

And then compare these both to a Holstein-Frisian cross who leans more on the Frisian side;

Proper weight, developed legs. Its biggest "problem" is actually just the udder shape-- deep udders, which "hang" low like that, aren't optimal for milk-focused breeds because the higher away from the ground the less chance there is of infection. In that department, the "unselected" holstein clearly outclasses the holstein-frisian.

But it probably won't be surprising to hear that the "show holstein," with its massive, swollen udder, is SUPER prone to infections such as mastitis.

But it is also just more prone to getting sick generally

And, to keep up with these insane demands, holsteins need a TON of food. You aren't going to just turn these things out into a pasture and be done with it. Even its ancestor the Frisian needed premium Dutch polder grass to be such a good cow-- crank that up to 11 with these Monuments to Humanity's Hubrice

The Texas Longhorn developed in semi-feral conditions and can eat a bush to become the best thing in a 10 mile radius. The Scottish Highland was iron-forged in upland moors with a steady diet of turf and rain.

Meanwhile if a Holstein has less than 5 homemade meals a day without poland spring bottled water it will die to death.

And the WORST part? You have to use these if you want to make money in dairy farming. It's WAAY too expensive to just run a suboptimal farm. Their milk isn't great, but they sure do make a lot of it.

...so Holsteins and Holstein-Frisians (and other "super efficient" breeds) have absolutely decimated heritage cattle. The American Milking Devon is a deep reddish brown with gorgeous horns and low maintenance; rare. Randall Linebacks are painted with lines of white speckles down the back and can be used for any purpose; critically endangered. The Niata was a pug-faced cow who could fight jaguars; extinct.

And THAT'S what makes me hate them most of all. I LOVE cows, but whenever I see a reference to one, it's a holstein. It's always boring black and white splotches with big pink udders. They're practically synonymous with "cow" when their homogeniety is actually hiding much cooler breeds from you.

Did you know cows can be tiger-striped?

And that England has its own type of longhorn?

Or that cow horns can twist upwards like an antelope?

And that they can have REALLY LONG ears?

And that they can be blue?

And that's not even getting into some of the cows that have gotten a small crumb of attention lately, such as Highlands, Ankole-Watusi, and Texas Longhorns. There's so many cool cows out there! And they're all really different from holsteins! MOST of them are also a lot healthier and produce tastier milk and meat!

TL;DR yeah i don't like holsteins and I like sniping at them. For reasons both legit and petty.

[tantei-chan01]

Animals Continued

Xxxxx

Once the World Tour is taken care of, with the rock trolls agreeing to help with the damages, the rest of the tribes return to their respective territories. There's just one issue, the wild life have gotten bolder.

Since the attack, many of their defenses have been destroyed, causing the local wildlife to get closer to the residents. There haven't been any attacks, but it does make the citizens nervous.

Techno trolls have sharks, eels, and large squid that are their natural predators. It's also the time of year for the giant mana ray migration, so they need to figure out a way to redirect them without their tech.

The Classical trolls have large preditory birds to worry about, and they're having trouble getting their eighth goats under control.

The Country trolls have many poisoness animals in the desert. Their cattle have been scared off so many times that they won't get close to the town.

The Funk trolls have to stay grounded until repairs are done on the ship, since they haven't been on the ground for so long, they're not quite sure how to deal with many of the creatures.

The Rock trolls also have a problem, with so many of the citizens in different territories to help with repairs. They've neglected their own issues with the lava crocs and boulder buzzards.

When Poppy learns of this, she sends in the one troll who can help them.

Enter Branch.

At first, Branch was a little apprehensive to leave the village, they still have some repairs to do, and it's mating season for the puffalo. The Snack Pack tell him that they can handle the reconstruction and Milton can help with the puffalo. So he packs up his bags and starts heading toward the other tribes.

Xxx

Branch spends a month in each tribe to do his job. He tackles the predators first, spending two weeks studying their habits and memorizing their sounds. Once he finds a pattern in the communication or an exploitable weakness, he makes a strategy and collaborates with the other trolls on how to best go through it. Some animals he was able to convince to move areas, others he had no choice but use force.

Once the predators are taken care of, he gets to the domestic animals. Like before, he memorizes the habits and sounds. Once he has a form of communication going, he'll ask them what they need. He then relays the message to the trolls, and they start making accommodations.

The other tribes notice how their pets and livestock seem much calmer around the once gray troll. Even the more temperamental of their creature become putty in his hands. Many have called him the 'Animal Whisperer', and the more romantic types call him an Angel.

To say thanks for helping them, each tribe gives him an animal.

Techno gave him a Low beat Turtle, similar to Suki's bugs, the have a turntable on their back. They can move on land and can create a low vibration sound that has a calming effect.

Classical gave him three eighth goats as they do better in a herd than by themselves. Their wool is fluffy and warm, making incredible blankets, pillows, and sweaters. They also have a melodious bleat.

Country gave him a dairy Bluegrass Buffalo, they're a sandy blue color cow. They make a delicious and nutritious milk and are very gentle.

Funk gave him a snug-a-lug since Branch can talk to them. He can figure out how to hug it without multiplying. And yes, Branch can make that cute little warble it does.

Rock gave him a Lava Snake, they vary in color from dark red to an ashy gray. Their hide is very tough while their underbelly is quite soft. They can withstand extremely high temperatures, and their skin can be melted to create many things once they shed. The young one likes to sleep in the fireplace.

The animals in Pop village take them under their tutelage to become Branch's bodyguards, unbeknownst to him.

[killervelveteenrabbit]

Reaction to “El Toro de Piedras” (S6, E7)

After much consideration, I’ve decided to publish reactions based on the .to leaks rather than waiting for the Disney broadcast. While I want to support the official release, the fact is that Disney’s scheduling of premieres is erratic and unpredictable, and there’s a strong chance that one new episode, “The Ruler”, may never air on Disney at all. And let’s be real: everyone is already watching the French rips on the Tongan site anyway.

Raúl makes an immediate and fearful impression, physically taking up the entire screen. His plan to steal the Mona Lisa is a grand spectacle intended not only to reestablish himself as a supervillain but to carry his legacy into a new generation. (Incidentally, the subtitles have Raúl calling Ivan “mi miro”, but this isn’t a phrase in Spanish. It appears to be the editor’s mistranslation of “mi mijo”, or “my son”.)

Gabriel Agreste as we knew him would never surrender the time or the dignity to record a message implanted into a stuffed toy. What happened? Adrien traces the change to when Gabriel started “traveling”. It seems Gabriel's obsession with finding a cure for Emilie’s illness, followed by his quest to capture the Miraculous and revive her, caused him to lose sight of and neglect the person at the very heart of it all.

Why hide such an important message in an old photo album? I suspect Gabriel was attempting a combination Batman-Thanatos Gambit. Gabriel anticipated that if he died, a mourning and sentimental Adrien would look through all those boxes, discover the note and its commission while doing so, and in a moment of grief and emotional vulnerability pledge to fulfill his father’s mission, bringing both his parents back. Again, Gabriel is not the same person who recorded that message for Froggy.

We only see Luka from the shoulders up, although we know his new look incorporates an open shirt :O

It’s unclear how Luka can support the Miraculers while in self-imposed exile in Brazil. One thing hasn’t changed, however: his empath ability. He’s the only one who notices something’s up with Marinette.

Ivan’s increasingly frantic drumming forms an inadvertent backdrop to the tense conversation between Marinette and Nathalie: a brilliant choice by the writers.

Chronologically, this episode precedes “Revelator” (ep 11). Airing that episode first creates the false impression that Alya planted Marinette's initial doubts regarding her secret, whereas in reality Marinette has been pondering the implications since London.

Who was that sitting on the bench outside Maison Agreste as Ivan left, and then approached the men’s room as he went in? Surely this must be Cerise in another brilliant disguise. She was counting on Ivan getting upset enough to warrant akumatization, and when Ivan didn’t rise to that level of frustration, she pivoted to Raúl.

Um… can we talk to whoever within the “Nouvelle Chance” initiative that assigned a former supervillain to a security detail at a museum housing thousands of priceless objets d’art? They couldn’t find him a position on a loading dock somewhere?

Ivan made the best decision he could under the circumstances. Going along with Raúl’s plot was never an option, but dropping a dime on him would guarantee his return to prison. Stealing the duffel bag and leaving the note in its place split the difference. It’s not his fault Raúl reacted so badly to it.

Most abusive parents are former abused children. They inflict the same maladaptive parenting styles on their children because it’s all they know… and perhaps because the strict parenting “worked” somehow, gave them an alleged mental or social advantage that supposedly vindicates and justifies everything they suffered. Hence, Raúl must raise Ivan as a “bull” to keep him from becoming a weak and exploitable “dairy cow”. (As an aside, I’m guessing it was Ivan’s maternal grandmother who raised him. Otherwise, he would already exhibit “bull” tendencies.)

The letter as a prompt for an akumatization is a callback to Ivan becoming Stoneheart during the “Origins” two-parter. His first akumatization happened because of the note Kim passed to Ivan taunting him about his feelings for Mylène; the second time, the trigger was a crumpled sheet of paper on which Ivan wrote a song for her. And those of you who speak Spanish have already observed the connection between Stoneheart and “El Toro de Piedras”, or “the bull of stone”, who wants his son to have “a heart of stone” as well.

Damn, Toro even scares Chrysalis within her own dimensional space!

The tribute to Mayor Bustier testifies to the value of the lessons she tried to impart. Granted, some of her students (i.e., Chloe and Lila) took advantage of her humanistic approach, the same way Raúl exploited the Nouvelle Chance program. It’s the risk you take when you appeal to people’s better natures and reach out to “habitual offenders”. Sometimes you get tricked, but the difference you make in so many people’s lives makes it worth it.

Nathaniel’s statement about how Mme. Bustier taught the kids how to “fight for their beliefs” becomes dangerously relevant in “The Ruler”, which broke containment the following week.

Minotaurox summoning Ladybug to the sewers isn’t just a matter of convenience. Ivan feels like shit and considers himself a piece of shit.

This may be a French show, but I can’t help feeling like this episode was made for the American audience, considering the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any developed country, and five times that of France. That means a lot of kids with a parent in jail, to the point that Sesame Workshop created a toolkit on the subject. Ivan’s struggles are the same ones faced by many children with incarcerated parents: the inherent estrangement, the social stigma, loving the parent but hating their offense, and worrying they too will become a “bad” person.

Juleka’s another child in her father’s shadow, coping with estrangement and the expectations of others. Season 1 Juleka could never have pulled off that solo performance. As her song explains, support from Miss Bustier helped her find a voice, part of the “legacy” she created within Collège Françoise Dupont.

Am I the only one who noticed the yellow tint on the fight scene, as if the animators put a Mexican filter on it?

Usually, it’s Ladybug or Chat Noir who breaks the akumatized object. But this time, Ivan did it, breaking both the whip and his father’s symbolic control.

This isn’t the first time LB has successfully prevented an akumatization victim from getting arrested, as previously seen in “Qilin”. And both times, the cops honor her request. Compare that to first-season episodes like “Copycat” and “Rogercop” where the police treated Ladybug and Chat Noir like either nuisances or criminals.

So more people besides Tomoe Tsurugi (obviously “the Machine”) had interests in Gabriel procuring the two main Miraculous, and they’re not pleased that Gabriel used them for “selfish” purposes. Nathalie’s father is a member of “the Council”… perhaps this was why Nathalie assented to the custody agreement proposed in “Werepapas”, so Adrien would not become entangled in the Council’s machinations or Nathalie’s obligations toward it.

[beingharsh]

Since eggs and dairy are naturally occurring and do not technically necessitate the death of an animal, they are often marketed and understood as harmless by-products. Yet this perception is far from accurate. At the most basic level, genetic selection means factory farmed hens lay up to 30 times more eggs than they naturally would, which often results in weakened bones as calcium reserves are diverted to egg production (Rufener et al., 2019). A study of 67 non-caged egg-laying hen flocks in the UK revealed that anywhere from 30% to 95% of chickens in a single flock suffered keel bone fractures (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, 2008), which often go untreated and are understood to be painful (Riber et al., 2018). Similarly, modern dairy cows are bred to produce up to 20 times the amount of milk they would naturally (World Animal Protection, 2022) which - coupled with recurring pregnancy - has been associated with increasing incidence of health problems and premature death (Oltenacu & Algers, 2005). Furthermore, the routine separation of new-born dairy calves from their mothers can cause psychological distress (Solano et al., 2007). Since only female animals are useful to the egg and dairy industries, male chicks are usually killed upon hatching (Krautwald-Junghanns et al., 2018) and male calves are commonly shot dead or sold to the veal industry to become meat (Renaud & Pardon, 2022). Likewise, when females in these industries become ‘spent’, i.e., no longer able to produce the quantities expected of them, they are often slaughtered and rendered into low-grade meat and pet food products, which maximises profits for the farmer (Orzechowski, 2016). In terms of environmental impact, one glass of cow's milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gas emissions and uses nine times more land than any plant-based alternative like oat, soy, or almond (Poore & Nemecek, 2018). Harm is implicated in every stage of the production of modern dairy and egg products, and although the public are likely unaware of the full extent of exploitation, data shows an increasing awareness of such production practices (Brümmer et al., 2018; de Haas et al., 2021). Yet unlike meat, the psychological processes involved in NMAP [non-meat animal products] consumption are insufficiently explored.

"The cheese paradox: How do vegetarians justify consuming non-meat animal products?", Devon Docherty, Carol Jasper

[insufferablefirehazard]

The dairy industry r*pes cows, steals their babies, exploits and kills them.

The egg laying hens get killed when they no longer produce eggs and male chicks are sent into blenders as soon as they hatch.

Be vegan for them.

[master-john-uk]

Although I grew up in rural area, I am not a farmer... although I am getting better at it.

In 2007 I agreed to buy a rundown mainly arable farm in Dorset. In 2018, I purchased the neighbouring, loss-making dairy farm. I did not buy either as a business investment, or as a way of avoiding paying tax. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I acquired both farms for all the wrong reasons. (My business and financial advisors held their heads in despair!)

Both farms were bought to stop them being purchased by property speculation companies, or large organisations that might exploit and underpay their farm workers. In addition, one of the main reasons I bought the dairy was that my mother loved cows... and she had recently passed away.

I have spent a fortune on renovating both farms. Animal welfare is important, as is making our operations more environmentally friendly. After installing solar panels and an anaerobic digestor, we are now almost self-sufficient for electricity, which now means both farms are now returning a small operating profit.

If I sold both farms today, it is unlikely that I would recoup my capital investment on improvements, and renovation work. If I keep both farms for another hundred years I might be rolling in money!!!

When I bought the dairy farm in 2018, I had several ideas on how to generate income from the underutilised land. Now that Plush Manor has closed as a wedding venue... I will investigate these further in 2025.

[veganterrorist]

"YoU CAnT MiLk A PlaNT!" is quite literally the goofiest argument against plant-based milks. Are you fucking twelve? Lmao. Big dairy and the animal agriculture industry has absolutely poisoned the minds of so many people. "WE DO IT BECAUSE WE ARE HUMANS AND HAVE ALWAYS DONE IT!" Just because we've done something for a long time isn't a good enough reason (nor a valid justification) to continue doing it, especially when we know it's exploitative and harmful. I'm not criticising the families out there that have a couple of milking cows that rely on dairy to feed their families, but rather the entire animal agricultural industry that has normalised the mass abuse that is perpetuated on huge dairy farms. Anyone that's ever stepped foot on a large dairy farm knows what goes on behind the fences and they are culpable in that mistreatment. Buying milk and supporting the industry is a direct show of support for that harm and mistreatment to continue ad infinitum.

[starletown]

of all the CI characters who could be vegan i do find it baffling that Kenny is the main (only?) one. vegetarian i'd buy WAY more, or 'vegan but doesn't actually despise ethical, organic local animal produce as a gift' (neutral gifts rather than hated, maybe?)

this guy and his family run the ranch. he spends so much of his time with these LIVESTOCK/(i always fuckin forget the word for farm birds) animals. why the hell did they even bring cattle and chickens and sheep and ducks to the island if not to gently, responsibly, lovingly care for the animals and in turn reap certain by-products from these efforts? collecting freshly laid eggs fromthe hutch when your flock moves outside for the day isn't hurting the chicken. 1 man sitting beside his cow to milk her while he, idk, sings to her or whatever is not cruelly industrial animal exploitation on the same level as large dairies. idt it's applicable to his gifting preferences but most sheep breeds NEED to be shorn to remain clean and healthy over time, and if ur doing it right it's... i mean probs not their fave experience in life but ur "cutting the hair" not skinning the animal. these bee hives are producing a massive excess of edible honey. my guy, you love nature, you work with animals, you know all these things, you presumably know the importance of getting all ur necessary vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, and that the human body has evolved to absorb some of these from animal-sourced products........... why the hELL.

is it religious? is it a health thing? is it less moralistic/ethics-based and he just....doesn't LIKE the taste or the way those foods make him feel and the idea of receiving them, by extension, is also upsetting, rather than being "cruel" to animals and critical along that vein?

i simply don't understand. the dots are on the same page, sure, but trying to connect them rn doesn't actually create a clear picture for me

[acti-veg]

Ahhgg... I can't handle this ignorance anymore. Today I had to sit in during a discussion where two "ethical farmers" jerked themselves off about the fact they were helping their cows not develop mastitis by milking them and how uneducated militant vegans are for being "concerned for the cows well being". Cause they clearly enjoy getting milked!!!

Then I pulled out the ol reliable speech:

"Domesticated dairy cows, especially those bred and selected over generations for high milk production, can develop mastitis (a painful infection of the udder) if they are not milked regularly. You are correct with that.

However, this is not a natural situation — it’s a result of selective breeding by humans to produce far more milk than a calf would naturally consume.

Wild cattle or cows not bred for dairy do not typically overproduce milk or suffer from this issue.

Cows may feel relief when being milked because it relieves udder pressure — just like you'd feel relief letting air out of an overinflated balloon.

That doesn’t mean they “enjoy” the overall dairy process, which can involve:

Forced impregnation (to keep them lactating)

Separation from calves

Shortened lifespans

Confinement or routine exploitation

The claim that cows must be milked or they'll die is true only for dairy cows bred for excessive milk output.

That condition wouldn’t exist in nature, and is a consequence of industrial farming, not a justification for it.

So using this to morally defend dairy farming or mock someone for caring about cows is a bad-faith argument."

After that they just said, "well but majority of cows are in mass production farms so we have to milk them", like ???

Sorry for the vent. I'm frustrated talking to a wall.

It’s the age old defence used by so many animal exploiters. There is this really bizarre pretence that somehow they have just magically ended up with 5000 dairy cows so they have to milk them, because what else are they supposed to do? The 10,000 chickens 5)36 happen to have in a large dark warehouse produce eggs anyway so why can’t we take them? Sheep produce wool anyway, it’s just a haircut! I can’t afford to keep all their lambs or the old ones who aren’t as profitable so of course they have to go to slaughter. All the natural predators of deer are somehow gone (no idea who did that) so we have to hunt them or they’ll become overpopulated 🥺

As you pointed out, all of this is of course ignoring the fact that those animals are in that situation because they were specifically bred that way for the explicit purpose of making profit. It is a business, animals are commodities and profits to them. You can’t both use that to explain why they have to be kept in overcrowded spaces and killed at a fraction of their life expectancy, then suddenly pretend that everything you do is in their best interests rather than yours. Honestly, I think it is a lie they tell for their own sake more than ours.

[devoted1989]

the dark reality behind dairy

By World of Vegan.

Within the dairy realm, two narratives intertwine: the plight of the mothers and that of their offspring.

Artificial insemination serves as a harsh introduction to the dairy industry’s cycle of exploitation. Unlike the natural way to get pregnant, female cows within commercial dairy farms are subjected to an intrusive process that blatantly violates their reproductive system.

This invasive procedure forces cows into a perpetual cycle of pregnancies, denying them the right to choose their mates or control their reproductive destinies.

Just like human mothers, a female cow has a nine-month gestation period. And after giving birth, calves typically nurse from their mothers for 6 months or longer.

But in the dairy industry, once her calf is born, she’ll experience a mere day or two of companionship—sometime less—before her calf is forcefully separated from her to prevent the loss of even a drop of valuable milk, which would cut into the profits of the dairy industry. This is the last time the mother will see her baby.

Like most moms, cows have powerful maternal instincts and are extremely distressed when their babies are taken away from them. Their anguished bellows can be heard for up to a mile away. Some cows are so distraught that they will even stop eating.

Post-separation, the mother cows are subjected to mechanical milking—a stark contrast to the nostalgic image of a farmer hand-milking a cow.

As soon as her baby is taken away, the mother will be hooked up to a milking machine to take the milk that her body made for her calf. In natural circumstances, nursing cows produce just 12 to 15 pounds of milk each day and calves nurse all day long.

But in the majority of today’s dairy operations, a mother cow will produce a staggering 50 pounds of milk daily. The pressure of her painfully loaded udder will only be relieved by mechanical milking twice a day, which often leads to mastitis and other excruciatingly painful conditions.

As time progresses, milk production wanes, initiating a vicious cycle of repeated artificial impregnation, bereavement, and mechanical milking.

This cycle persists yearly until these cows meet a grim fate—slaughtered as adolescents, their natural lifespan of 25 to 30 years cut short. Their bodies, devoid of milk-production utility, are often processed into meat products, most often burgers.

Shifting focus to their offspring, USDA statistics reveal that 97 percent of calves are separated from their mothers within the first 12 hours of birth.

Female calves, like their mothers, confront a bleak fate. Denied maternal nourishment, they are confined in solitary and often cramped pens, where they have no way to find comfort or nurse from their mother.

Replacing mother’s milk with a formula, they endure this existence for 6-8 months, foregoing a natural upbringing characterized by play, bonding, and freedom.

Once fertile, the cycle of forced impregnation, grief, mechanical milking, and eventual slaughter begins anew.

50 percent of the babies born will be male, and a male calf has little financial value to the dairy industry because he’ll never produce milk.

In most situations he’ll either be kept and raised for beef, slaughtered immediately for cheap veal, or sent to a torturous facility to become higher priced veal.

On a veal farm the baby calf will be confined in a small space in which he can barely move and fed an iron-poor diet until he becomes severely anemic. His muscles will atrophy, and at just a few months of age, he’ll be slaughtered. His tender, pale flesh will be sold as veal.

You may be surprised to learn that marketing buzzwords like “Organic, Grass-Fed and Free-range” you might see on meat, dairy, and egg labels don’t guarantee better lives for the animals.

The mechanics remain the same, including the unavoidable separation of baby from mother, painful surgical mutilations without anesthetic, factory-style milking, and premature slaughter.

These terms, designed to attract compassionate consumers, fail to dismantle the core mechanisms of exploitation.

Considering the immense suffering, is the fleeting gustatory pleasure of cow’s milk truly worth it? The array of delicious, plant-based alternatives renders this question obsolete. Opting for both taste and compassion aligns with our evolving food landscape.

Our grocery choices equate to votes for the world we desire. While personal, these choices transcend the individual, impacting the lives of others.

Opting for animal-based dairy entails contributing to a continuum of suffering. Awareness fuels change. Acknowledging one’s past contributions to cruelty ignites a journey toward more humane choices. Armed with knowledge, we navigate a path of greater compassion, for when we know better, we can genuinely do better.

[houseofpurplestars]

A critical piece of context as avian flu continues to spread in US dairy cows herds is that more than half of dairy workers in the US are immigrants, many undocumented, exploited, abused, often working 16 hours a day, every day. Pandemic control is impossible in such conditions

— Nate Bear (@NateB_Panic) April 4, 2024

[vegantanya]

We protested for the Personhood Status of ALL animals where we demand for them to have the right to life, freedom, body and to be free from exploitation. Caption posted under the video.

What's wrong with dairy?

1. Cows/buffalos are forcefully impregnated (sexual abuse) year after year so that they can have children and make milk for them.. because only a mother gives milk.. but the fHarmer steals the milk meant for the calf and makes a business from it.

2. Bulls are forced to ejaculate (sexual abuse) semen through torturous practices like electric rods forced inside their private parts.

3. Once the cows/buffalos cannot give milk anymore (their bodies are exhausted after back to back forced pregnancies by the time they are 5 or 6 years of age), they are sold to be murdered for meat. In India, the dairy industry is the beef industry. India is also the 2nd highest exporter of leather and beef which all comes from the dairy industry. Buffalo slaughter is legal everywhere and cow slaughter is legal in 6 states in our country.

4. Calves are not allowed to drink their own birthright milk. In nature, calves drink a little bit of milk from their mother every 2 hours or so, but 'dairy industry' instead gives them replacers and keeps them separate from their own mothers.

5. Male calves are also sold and murdered for veal meat.

6. The bodies of cows/buffalos are genetically manipulated to produce more milk than a mother naturally produces. This is a horrific violation of her body.

7. Oxytocin injections are use by dairy industry to force the mothers to lactate more. This is an illegal drug that causes them extreme pain, but still used openly.

8. Cows/buffalos are not human property. Their milk is their own property and it is the birthright of their own children. It doesn't belong to us, whether less or more. Objectifying their bodies and treating their motherhood as a business is the height of immorality and it must be abolished.

Please watch UNHOLY CATTLE OF INDIA or DEADLY DAIRY or MAA KA DOODH on YouTube to see the truth. 

PLEASE help animals by going vegan and start fighting for their liberation!