Chains, electric shocks, forced separations between mothers and puppies. It is not a dystopian story, but the daily life of many Lattiero-Caseari farms in the Asturias region, in Spaindocumented by Animal Equality in a new shocking investigation.
Between November 2023 and February 2024, the organization for animal protection has conducted an investigation within 11 farms, Revealing a series of practices which, unfortunately, represent the standard of the sector. The images and videos show mistreated cows, dirty environments, vitelli nourished by force and a production system that focuses on the efficiency, at the expense of animal welfare.
The torture to which cows and calves are subjected
It is difficult to remain impassive in the face of systematic barbarism emerging from the investigation: the immediate separation of the calves from the mothers It represents one of the most ruthless practices of this industrial system. These are not a simple zootechnical management, but of a real violence that tears the puppies from the mothers even before they can receive the colostrum, that vital substance that should guarantee them the first immune defenses.
The calves then come artificially nourished with pipes brutally inserted into the throat, Private of every maternal contact, while the cows, desperate and lost, continue to move for days looking for their children.
The numbers of this suffering industry are clear: in Spain over 700,000 calfs are torn every year from the mothers to ensure that their milk ends up on our tables. Males? Considered mere “waste” of production, they are sent to the slaughterhouse after a few months of miserable existence. The females, on the other hand, are destined to perpetuate this hellish exploitation cycle.
The artificial insemination of cows is nothing more than an industrial process to create increasingly efficient “dairy machines”. With Sperma Sessato to guarantee the birth of females, these creatures are reduced to mere production tools. In thirty years, the genetic selection has doubled the amount of milk that a single cow can produce, but at what price? 30% of these animals develop mastitis, a painful infection of breasts caused by excessive milking and deplorable hygienic conditions.
As if reproductive exploitation were not enough, Animal Equality documents thesystematic use of torture tools: electrical punches, metal rings stuck in the nose, chains and electric shock devices to “train” the cows not to dirty their tiny prison spaces.
The images show violent beatings and manipulations, especially on the most vulnerable calves. Slipping floors, dirt and narrow spaces complete this picture of suffering, where animals are even prevented from moving normally.
Among the most aberrant practices there is then thesharpening of the hooves carried out with electric dischargesa procedure that would require extreme caution and specialized personnel, but which is instead conducted with brutal methods.
The final result of this system is as predictable as it is chilling: while in nature a cow could live up to 25 years, in the dairy industry its existence ends ruthlessly around 4-6 years, after just three or four reproductive cycles. Once the milk production decreases, the exhausted animals are sent to the slaughterhouse.
This is not livestock, it is systematic cruelty masked by industrial efficiency ..
*** Attention strong images ***
Avoid watching the video if you are particularly sensitive.
And in Italy?
Unfortunately it is not only Spain. Also in Italy, according to the data of the National Veterinary Bank, the calves do not pass well: in 2024 645 thousand were slaughtered before the 8 months of life, and three quarters of the 2.6 million slaughtered cattle had not yet turned two years.
This investigation highlights the violence and cruelty suffered by cows and their calves during pregnancy, childbirth and the first years of life, some of the most vulnerable phases for any mammal. What we have documented happens in Spain as in Italy and people deserve to know the reality that the dairy industry hides to the public-said Matteo Cui, executive director of Animal Equality Italy.
The investigation focuses on the spotlight on a system that, despite being legal and widespread, stands on invisible suffering and of which many consumers are not yet aware. An invitation to reflect on our daily choices, starting from the expense we do every day.
Ultimately, the fact remains that inflicting such sufferings to animals should not be acceptable or tolerated in a society that defines itself as civil.
