VEGAN MYTHS ABOUT RUMINANTS
Are Cows Sexually Abused for Milk?
Artificial insemination (AI) is a common practice in the dairy industry. Unfortunately, animal activists want the public to believe that it’s along the same lines as sexual assault in humans. But, is it really? Or is there more to it than they want us to know?
***Note: Not all buttons are active links! See below for details.
In Brief
For the TL;DR readers.
Vegans believe that cows are sexually abused purely due to human [mis]interpretation of bovine thoughts, feelings, and actions. They take the concept of forcible impregnation and support it with three primary arguments that support their beliefs that AI (artificial insemination) is “sexual abuse” or “rape.”
The first is lack of consent since rape is performed when the victim does not or cannot consent to the perpetrator’s sexually-driven domineering desires. The only problem is that ruminants do not understand this human-derived construct, and often, things must be done to them even though they “do not consent” because we know (they don’t) it’s for the betterment of their health and welfare.
The second is dominance, in that it’s a deliberate act of humans showing their dominance over the animal kingdom. But AI is never done with such intent; rather, it is a veterinary medical procedure to ensure pregnancy. Nothing more.
The third is sexualization and bestiality: a perverted interpretation of how and why AI exists. Vegans believe that those who perform AI achieve some form of sexual gratification from it. Only those who don’t want to admit that bestiality is a fetish of theirs would claim this. The truth is that AI (nor rectal palpation for verifying pregnancy) has never been about that. Once again, it’s merely a veterinary medical procedure/job that must be done to ensure new offspring are hitting the ground when their predecessors can’t live forever.
All in all, such beliefs and arguments come down to grossness and disgust, that is all. These reactions fuel hatred and vitriol towards farmers, flames which are fanned by the vegan propaganda that capitalizes on the vast ignorance people have about where their food truly comes from.
Cows are Forcibly Impregnated: Debunked
Almost all dairy cows are artificially inseminated. Via the button below, many legitimate reasons exist for utilizing AI (artificial insemination) on the farm, from safety to the health of the cow, thereby debunking the claim that AI is “forcible impregnation.”
However, animal activists like Joey Carbstrong, continue to push the narrative claiming that AI is akin to rape or sexual abuse. Below is an excerpt from an Australian morning talk show in 2019 where Joey tried to make his point known:
Joey: “..and when she can’t produce milk anymore, she’s murdered for her body, okay? Her mother…”
Host 1: “And so, the rape is the insemination?”
Joey: “Well, it’s forcible impregnation, isn’t it? If it was any… it’s, it’s the victim… if it was a human being we’d call it, what? What would we call it?”
Host 1 & 2: [after an awkward moment of silence] “[But it’s] it’s not a human being, it’s a cow… “
Joey: “It’s forcible… it’s sexual abuse…”
Therefore, “milk is rape.“
There’s just one problem, and it’s a big one: the justification for making such an attribution comes from those who have less of a clue about how dairy farming works than they actually believe.
The entire premise comes from the belief that cows are equal to humans: they supposedly have very similar emotional and intellectual capacities as we do, have the same wants for freedom and rights as we do, and therefore should be treated the same way as we treat other people.
But, this is the textbook definition of anthropomorphism. Cows (and all other animals) that truly are not sapient (but are indeed sentient), do not have the same thought/intellectual capacities, wants, needs, hopes, dreams, and therefore rights as we do. Cows don’t even see us as other cows. More on that later.
As such, they are unable to comprehend the concept of human-derived ethical and sociological ideas of consent, rape, murder, slavery, and other terms animal activists love to accuse farmers of employing over their so-called “dominion.”
Yet, this fact is lost on animal activists like Joey above. Either none of it matters, or they simply don’t wish to understand; the only means they consider legitimate to “understand” what dairy cows go through on a daily basis is described in the next section below.
Anthropomorphism Drivers
Anthropomorphism feeds the fire of hatred and disgust animal activists have toward anything to do with raising animals for food, fibre, and entertainment. In this case, it’s raising cows for milk (and meat).
It, without a doubt, explains the two major reasons as to why AI is aligned with such a horrific crime as sexual violence/assault/abuse aka “rape”:
- Human [mis]interpretation of how cows think, feel, and behave, and
- Grossness and disgust, due to the first reason, at the erroneous perspective gained in learning how cows are AI’d (or even preg-checked).
Anthropomorphism explains a third reason that plays the most significant role of all: An extremely large portion of the population are multi-generations removed from farming. The only link they have to it is from the food they buy at the grocery store, and that’s it.
No longer do they have a solid grasp of the realities of farming. They no longer have the appreciation of how differently animals, like cows, think and behave from us, nor how life and death works. This is not included in the list because it’s why these two reasons exist, and why anthropomorphism is so prolific in modern society today.
Human [mis]interpretation is priority to explain before we get into “grossness.” It is used to support three main arguments that cows are, allegedly, “sexually abused” on farms:
- Lack of consent
- Deliberate display of dominance
- AI is sexual and therefore akin to bestiality
Before we get into explaining (rather, debunking) all three of these arguments, we need to discuss human interpretation of bovine psychology and behaviour.
Human [Mis]Interpretation
WARNING:
The following contains disturbing, graphic, sexual content that may offend viewers.
Reader’s discretion is advised.
Many people erroneously perceive how ruminants, especially cows, think, feel and behave. As mentioned above, animal activists believe cows think, feel, and behave much like we do; as such, they should be treated much like we treat other human beings.
In the context of AI, particularly vegans’ arguments that “AI is rape,” the belief is that cows are forced against their will to become pregnant. They believe cows are unable to [verbally] consent, and it’s a sexual form of conduct to stick one’s arm up the anus of a cow and a metal rod into her vagina to inseminate her; therefore, it’s “sexual abuse.”
This interpretation comes from imagining what it’s like to be a cow. They imagine being forced, against their will, into a head gate where they are restrained. Then they imagine themselves with an entire hand forced up their anus and a metal rod put into their vagina.
The former is a real and rather nefarious sexual act called “fisting.” Yes, people are gross when wanting to find sexual gratification in bizarre ways from each other.
As such, they are grossed out by this version of reality and come with this misconstrued “understanding” that it must be very painful for a cow to go through, not to mention traumatizing and horrifying beyond belief.
The only problem is that this is wrong beyond most people’s comprehension. Not only are cows ten times the size and weight of an average human (compare a 150-pound, 5’5″ healthy, adult woman to a 1,500-pound healthy, mature cow standing 5-foot-5-inches at the shoulder, 6 feet from nose to tail, and between 30- to 40-inches wide around the belly), they also don’t see themselves as fellow four-legged furry humans.
Here lies the caveat. Human interpretation is based solely on human interpretation. It fails to acknowledge or appreciate how cows think, feel and act. How cows think, feel, and act is entirely different from how humans think, feel, and act.
Very, very few people understand bovine psychology and behaviour. Scientific literature tries to describe it objectively in complex detail; however, reading books or papers doesn’t compare to working with the animals themselves. They are the best teachers!
That said, those who have worked with and studied bovine behaviour are probably the best interpreters; those especially that know how to work with these animals in a calm, safe, and low-stress manner. Most of such people happen to be farmers, ranchers, or professionals in animal husbandry, not animal rights activists/vegans. Who knew?
What do cows think about? We don’t know. Our best guess is that they merely live in the moment and only concern themselves with eating, drinking, ruminating, and mating when it’s that time of year. They don’t seem to think of the future nor dwell in the past. Their only hopes and dreams seem merely to be tasty grass to eat and their besties they love to live with. A very simple life and existence, unlike what we have.
We also know they’re not machines, and they are indeed sentient. They can feel pain, and they have ways of interpreting the cause of fear and pain or calmness and pleasure, often by association with certain colours, objects, animals, and smells. Anything (or anyone) unfamiliar to them is a cause for concern (fear and anticipation of pain). However, they cannot philosophically define such things like we humans can.
They are most certainly capable of communication, mostly through body language and occasionally by vocalizing (or “mooing” as we like to interpret it). Their body language of play, calm, curiosity, joy (especially when fresh food is presented), fear, fight vs. flight, sex, maternal, and social hierarchy is slightly different from ours. One behaviour quite like us is the need for personal space, which many of us don’t respect anymore.
How ruminants like cows see us is probably the biggest reality check we all need to know about.
All cows, regardless if they’re for milk or meat, see us as the “predator.” We’re not other cows to them. Most just aren’t comfortable with humans being close to them and touching them, unless they’ve been desensitized to “pet status” like for a petting zoo.
They can’t help it. It’s in their DNA to be cautious of other species that physically look like a predator, act like a predator, and smell like one too.
People don’t realize we are instinctual predators from day one. We need certain activities to help us express our innate predator without hurting or killing via fun games of chasing others in a game of tag, stalking and scaring the living crap out of our loved ones, or loving to watch or play popular sports that involve a ball or puck.
This behaviour is subconscious to most of us but painfully obvious to the ruminant herbivore. When they notice it, they’re on yellow, orange, to red alert, and ready to either move out of the way or run for their lives.
Thus, whenever you approach a cow, even if the intent is good, she will always take that as a cue to keep a safe distance from you. She can’t read your mind, only your body language. Most of the time, you’re perceived as a threat until you can prove otherwise.
Finally, and realistically, a human, male or female, that sticks their arm up a cow’s rectum is much like a doctor sticking his finger up a man’s bum in a prostate exam. It’s uncomfortable (and a bit embarrassing) but not painful. Rectal palpation, used for not only AI but verifying pregnancy in large animals (which farmers and veterinarians call “preg-checking“), is a necessary medical procedure that isn’t meant to be painful or tortuous to an animal.
The Concept of “Lack of Consent”
Animal activists like to argue that, because cows are just like humans, they also have the right to bodily autonomy. However, per the discussion above, cows and cattle are anything but “human-like.”
We know that animals cannot [verbally] give consent. That doesn’t mean they aren’t afraid of letting us know when they don’t like what’s being done to them, whatever that may be.
Yet, cows do not understand the concept of consent as we do. We’re the ones who are able to properly define it, especially in determining acts which are lawful or unlawful, or moral or immoral.
According to Oxford Dictionary, consent is:
(noun) permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.
(verb) give permission for something to happen.
The opposites of consent are disagreement, opposition, rejection, or refusal.
In the context of rape, the victim is not consenting to the activity. [S]He is forced to undergo unlawful sexual activity/intercourse against their will and/or under threat of bodily harm or death. Non-consenting individuals may also be those who cannot give valid consent due to their being underage, mentally ill, mentally deficient, intoxicated by drugs or alcohol, unconscious, or deceived.
The whole act and meaning of rape, therefore, is of consent or lack thereof. Rape is also defined in non-sexual terms as being an “outrageous violation” or the seizure and taking away of something (or someone) by force.
In the aforementioned definition of rape, being of sexual violence, sexual abuse, or sexual assault, all of such definition is directly in the context of [un]lawful human conduct. NOT of conduct towards animals especially when it comes to veterinary medical procedures such as AI (or preg-checking).
(Bestiality is considered a form of zoophilia “rape” because the animal is forced to be involved in the nefarious sexual activity of one or more humans and therefore is unable to consent. Certain countries and states have laws that make bestiality an illegal activity. More on that later.)
Quite frankly, cows (and all other non-human animals) are unable to consent to anything that we have to, can do, or will do to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s for their own benefit or our idiotic wants and desires based on whatever nefarious beliefs we may have.
A cow will try to get away when she needs to be treated for an injury or sickness. Or, to AI her because having bulls on the farm is too expensive and too dangerous. Or, to get her out of some type of trouble she didn’t know any better than not getting into it in the first place.
Dairy cows cannot consent to be milked, yet are bred for it. They are indeed trained to be regularly milked out, but not in a cruel, inhumane manner.
On the other hand, [complete idiots] will catch an animal to perform nefarious, unlawful, and cruel activities on them. Use your imagination as to what that involves.
Consent, therefore, cannot be given by those animals either for the good that is intended for them or the evil that may be done to them.
What good is it, then, to argue animals’ interpretation of consent (and “bodily autonomy” of animals) when they have no clue about those concepts?
It’s better to debate what constitutes good welfare and animal husbandry. To ethically raise animals for food means understanding what truly is best for the animals in terms of welfare, health, productivity, and when the time comes, their ultimate death.
That responsibility falls on our shoulders. We’re the ones that are to be held accountable because we are responsible for their care. The animals cannot make any of those decisions by themselves.
Unfortunately, there are times when the things we must do to animals involve some level of force and “dominance,” but always for the benefit of that animal. Sadly, certain people misconstrue such activities as a “deliberate show of human superiority via dominance and control.”
Deliberate Display of Domanince
Rape is often utilized as a show of power and control while the perpetrator also gets their sexual gratification from their victim. However, as already established, this is in the context of unlawful human conduct and is very wrongly associated with raising dairy cows for milk.
Animals, once again, do not understand such a human-derived construct. They don’t know whether or not AI is some “deliberate show of power and control.” This cannot be understated.
Artificial insemination, therefore, has nothing to do with exerting power and control. It is, after all, a veterinary medical procedure.
We humans already exert some form of power and control over animals by how we get to decide to feed, house, and handle our animals, from our pets to the livestock in our care. It is indeed intentional. But, it’s not designed so that they live in fear and carry trauma for the rest of their lives, unlike with a real-life (human) sexual assault victim.
The way cows are raised is (and should be) a win-win situation: the cows win because they get free shelter, free food, and great health care, and the human (farmer) wins because it’s a challenging, fun, and enjoyable way of life, and an income is made in selling a product (milk).
Cows don’t give a d*mn that money is made off of them. (Yet another human construct they have no comprehension of.) The only thing they care about is being treated well, fed well, and feeling safe and secure.
If they’re being abused and neglected, it really, really shows. The animals don’t lie; humans sure do. And we humans can do some pretty nasty, vile, disgusting stuff to animals that they don’t deserve, like what will be discussed next.
Sexualization and Bestiality
The final and most grievously perverted human [mis]interpretation of AI is its sexualization. This is where animal activists believe that anyone who does AI “gets off” on it, or rather does it for the sake of selfish sexual gratification.
The major problem is that it’s one of the biggest lies animal rights activists have ever told about the “evil” dairy industry; and, its source may very well be from those who are deeply, mentally disturbed, so much so that their sadism and zoophilia fetishes come out in a form that questions if they’re actually defending animals in the first place.
Outrageous claims like this make people wonder if those who are the makers of such claims are the very perpetrators who enjoy and want to continue seeing animals tortured and forced to perform sexual acts with humans (aka, bestiality). Why and who else would dare bring up something like this in a public conversation about dairy farming or raising animals for food? Is it a secret means to quench their vile carnal proclivity, but in a way that avoids shining a light on their indecent guilty pleasures?
The reality is that nobody else is making AI (or preg-checking) out to be some “legalized” form of bestiality except vegans and animal activists; especially the followers of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Not the farmers, not the AI technicians, not those involved in selling bull semen to thousands of farms all over the world.
Nor is anyone else aligning AI to the erotic BDSM fetish of fisting or the imagination of “being a cow” and thereby being forcibly fisted. As mentioned above, it’s difficult to imagine being a cow when they’re 10 times our size and have less than a tenth of our intellect, if that.
But let’s talk about the disturbing realities of what actually constitutes bestiality.
In its true form, bestiality is not sticking the arm up a cow’s rectum. It’s a human performing a sexual activity with an animal for the purpose of that human’s sexual gratification.
This may entail a man sticking his penis in an orifice of an animal (mouth, nose, anus, or vagina) and utilizing that “space” until satisfaction is achieved, or a woman getting a male intact animal, be it a dog, horse, monkey, or whatever non-sapient species to vaginally or anally satisfy her.
Were the animals forced to interact in such a nefarious way? Most likely, yes. Would the animals that were involved in such interspecies sexual intercourse “enjoy themselves” in a way that they got their share of sexual gratification? Most likely, not.
Most likely, the animal was indeed forced against its will (was not consenting) to have sexual intercourse with a human. Would that not constitute sexual abuse or rape in its true form? It undoubtedly is animal cruelty and abuse, and while it’s not illegal all over the world, it very well should be.
However, AI (and preg-checking) has never been a sexual act. Just because it involves reproductive organs and understanding how sexual reproduction works doesn’t make it erotic or sexual in any way.
A human isn’t receiving sexual gratification with his or her entire arm up a cow’s rectum right up to the shoulder. No human sex organs are ever involved in such veterinary medical practices. So, why sexualize it? It’s disgusting, wrong, and beyond asinine.
It’s Simply All About Disgust
Taking everything into account, all the human interpretations of what life is like as a breeding and milk-producing dairy cow, the only reason why animal activists (vegans) believe that AI is rape is because of grossness and disgust.
In a word, such people think it’s gross and disgusting to stick an arm up the rectum of a cow to get her bred (to put it extremely simply, as there is the AI gun involved which is inserted in the cow’s vagina down through the cervix into her uterus).
That’s it.
What else feeds the intense anger, hatred and vitriol animal activists/vegans have towards farmers? Grossness and disgust.
What better way to incite anger, hatred and disgust than with a highly misleading meme such as the above? These are beef steers (castrated males), and the wording above is specially designed to proselytize and recruit more angry, disgusted, guilty people to the vegan cult.
Over the past 100 years, more people have moved off the farm into the cities. Today, over 98 percent of the population spends their entire lives in cities, suburbs, and towns. The only true “exposure” they have to animal agriculture is through the grocery store.
As such, an enormous number of people are completely oblivious to where these products actually come from. Growing up, they continue to believe that milk and meat come from the grocery store, and not from animals.
When they do finally face the reality of where their anima-based foods come from, whether it’s by their own discovery or someone leads them to the truth (depending on how harsh a reality check they received), they may choose to completely abstain from such food items for a time or accept the reality and continue to eat as normal. Others may deny the truth altogether and also continue to eat as normal.
Those who swear off eating animal products usually do so out of disgust and guilt. They’ve made the discovery that raising animals for food is not all rainbows and sunshine; it’s a far darker, harsher reality than the version they thought was true.
This angers them greatly. They hate and feel anger at those whom they perceive are causing such “unspeakable cruelty” to those “innocent animals.” They feel guilty that they believed it was perfectly acceptable to eat animals in the first place. And, anger at why animals aren’t treated in the same version of “reality” they believed was true because that’s what they grew up with as children, by what their parents and grandparents told them and what they saw in movies and TV shows.
Dairy cows lying down in sawdust are happy, ruminating cows. Not stressed, not scared, not mistreated. You can always tell if animals are being mistreated just by how they look.
Grossness and disgust is a major reason in this discussion because it feeds the vegan propaganda machine of misinformation. With no other way of understanding except via human [mis]interpretation, it is the only reason why animal activists feel the need to “spread the truth” to everyone and anyone. They want people to feel the same as they do, and they feel like they’re the only ones who “know the truth.”
The problem is that they’re willfully spreading patently false information. They’re unwilling to realize that the truth about dairy farming (or beef farming or any kind of farming that involves turning animals into food) is indeed dirtier, harsher, and darker than they want it to be.
Most importantly, nothing they can do or say will change that. The way animals are farmed for meat and milk will indeed change for the betterment of the animals in terms of welfare, but not in the way that animal activists will consider a “win”.
It also seems like more and more people are becoming aware of how misleading and vile these animal activists are getting, regardless if they were or were not vegan themselves before.
As such, their well-intentioned, yet malevolent, “let’s proselytize to as many as much as possible because we’re the only ones who know the [‘truth’],” mass directive is starting to backfire.
Deliberately trivializing the brutal and traumatic experiences of true sexual assault victims is absolutely despicable. It’s dehumanizing, misanthropic, and even misogynistic. These activists are only inciting hatred, anger, and disgust back to themselves by making such comparisons to AI’ing cows.
If there is any anger and vitriol directed at those “evil fHarmers,” it’s by a small, twisted, mentally-deranged minority that has nothing better to do than to spam the comments section of a farmer’s social media post.
Rape is a very serious crime, and doesn’t deserve to be cheapened to the level PETA and its followers have done. Shame on them for allowing this to continue.
Conclusions: Are Cows Really Sexually Abused?
The answer is a clear, and resounding no.
Artificial insemination is not rape. It’s a veterinary medical procedure that is designed with the safety of both people and cows in mind, and to allow cows to continue on their genetics and legacy with the help of humans.
However, certain people have come to some very disturbing conclusions solely based on their selfish, human-derived interpretation of what it must be like to be a dairy cow.
Unfortunately, their conclusions are false and fail to account for how cows actually think, act, and feel. Hence, human interpretation is actually a misinterpretation of bovine behaviour and psychology.
Much of what is projected onto dairy cows are human-constructed hubris that those cows have absolutely no understanding of.
Cows don’t and can’t consent to anything, yet it’s solely our responsibility to do what must be done to them so that they remain healthy and productive, regardless if those cows give us permission to do so or not.
Display of dominance is another human-derived construct that is already in place in the way we choose to care for our animals.
Bestiality is cruel and truly animal abuse, yet it has nothing to do with AI. Yet, why are animal activists so obsessed with it that they must bring it up every chance they get?
Finally, human misinterpretation and anthropomorphism have incited a level of hatred, disgust, and anger that is shameful. It has encouraged people to trivialize sexual assault victims and cheapen the brutality of rape, to wantonly harass and abuse farmers (especially online), and has revealed the cold reality that most people have far less of a clue about dairy farming than they really believe.
In conclusion, the general public is the real victim here: they are being coerced to believe the biggest lie about dairy farming that’s ever been told by animal rights organizations, and in such a way that is dehumanizing and contemptible.
