The following is an article Purusha dasa on the urgent necessity of cow protection.
Veganism Is Unnatural and Unhealthy. Without drinking milk, all human beings on the planet would die in one generation as a result. Cows are, whether we like it or not, domesticated animals. This means that without human association, they would die in the wild. The vegan program of stopping cows' milk production and demonizing cows' milk is not only unauthorized in the scriptures (and therefore mental speculation), but it also creates suffering for the cows because without a useful and cruelty-free purpose to humans (such as milk production), the cows' only purpose for humans would be killing them in order to eat their flesh. Even though many vegans speculate out of "good" intentions, their mental speculation regarding cows’ milk is actually creating much more suffering for the cows than the lacto-vegetarian diet could ever cause. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If your diet includes meat or eggs, then you are engaging in an activity suitable for the intelligence of a vulture. If you eat a vegan diet, then you are engaging in an activity suitable for the intelligence of a pigeon. If you eat a lacto-vegetarian diet, then you are engaging in an activity suitable for the intelligence of a human being. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Common Counter-arguments and Their Defeaters: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Milk and Your Health: Good or Bad? Sometimes people voice a concern about what they call a “milk allergy,” but actually, nobody is allergic to milk -- so-called "milk allergy" is a myth. In reality, cow's milk is 100% hypo-allergenic, which means that it does not, and can not, cause any allergy symptoms in anyone. Some people may be allergic to certain inorganic additives, but to call that a "milk allergy" would be inaccurate and misleading because in the presence of such unnatural additives, the same allergy symptoms would still be present, wholly apart from the presence of cow's milk. Human beings are mammals, and as such it is natural for us to drink milk. Inorganic additives are what is difficult to tolerate, not the cow's milk itself. The solution to the problem is to utilize cow's milk without adding any inorganic chemicals, not to quit drinking cow's milk. The only living being on earth who inhales oxygen and exhales oxygen is the cow. Another little-known fact is that spending a few minutes with the cow, feeding her, will allow the cow to recognize the disorders of our bodies through a unique gland present in her nose. She accepts us as her beloved children, and later when she goes grazing, she feeds on the specific herbal plants necessary to reverse the disorders that she has detected, because of her motherly love for us. After grazing on the herbs, she furnishes milk that holds the potent qualities sufficient to reverse the present disorders. This is why ayurvedic physicians advise that we should know the cow personally, treat her very kindly and affectionately, and accept her as our beloved mother before we drink her milk. Our ancestors have always given a revered and special status to the cow. Hence, we should protect Mother Cow, and we should protect pastoral culture: In turn they protect our health and our wealth. Health problems are not caused by cow's milk, and they do not disappear because of quitting cow's milk. In fact, the vegan diet causes many health problems that lacto-vegetarians don't face. The dryness of the vegan diet, for example, causes damage to the bodily tissues -- especially to the brain tissues. The vegan diet is rajasic and unnatural to human beings and causes many health problems, including the following: - unnatural dryness - excessive thirst - excessive hunger - stomach ailments & digestive problems - mental rigidity - lowered intelligence - increased mental agitation - quickness to anger ----------------------------------------------------------------------- But Isn't Milk Cruel? Vegans claim that drinking milk involves cruelty, but this is simply not the case: Millions of human and cow babies drink milk every day without committing any acts of cruelty, and in order to present a consistent argument, the vegans would also have to decry the human and cow babies' practice of milk-drinking, but nobody has ever made such a complaint. Vedic lacto-vegetarian agriculture does not involve cruelty to or slaughter of cows or bulls: In Vedic lacto-vegetarian agriculture, bulls use their great strength to plow the fields to grow vegetables. This is a superior system to western “vegan” agriculture, which uses tons of petroleum-based machinery instead of bulls to plow fields. The western system causes pollution and environmental havoc, whereas the Vedic system is perfectly natural and gentle on the environment. Western “vegan” agriculture, which lacks the rich nutritional benefits of fertilizer made from cow dung and fermented dairy products, kills the bulls and cows, and uses their dead body parts as fertilizer, a cruel and barbaric practice that is forbidden in Vedic agriculture. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Is It Meant for Us Humans? Vegans make the claim that because milk is meant for baby cows, people shouldn’t drink it. However, that claim is questionable at the outset because many cows are very happy to share their milk with us humans. The important thing is that the cows must be treated with the utmost love and respect (ahimsa). It’s also very easy to understand that the vegans' claim is inconsistent with their lifestyle when one considers the fact that the nutrients in soybeans and almonds are meant for the baby soy and almond plants: In order to present a consistent position, the vegans would need to stop eating soybeans, almonds, peas, rice, wheat, and so forth. However, there seem to be very few vegans (if any) that would be willing to quit consuming such food sources. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONCLUSION: There's really no valid reason to restrict oneself to the vegan diet: Consuming wholesome milk and milk products is not only sanctioned in God's revealed scriptures, but it's even encouraged -- as long as the cows who provide the milk are treated with the same respect and love with which one would treat his own mother (ahimsa milk). There is absolutely nothing cruel about drinking milk, and the proof of this fact is that throughout human history, nobody has ever protested the human and cow baby habit of drinking milk on the grounds that it could somehow be an act of cruelty. In fact, as noted above, so-called "vegan" agriculture involves cruelty to and slaughter of cows for use as fertilizer, whereas lacto-vegetarian agriculture does not. In reality, there is no such thing as any so-called "milk allergy,” and all one needs to do in order to avoid allergies is to consume milk that hasn't been subjected to the addition of inorganic chemicals (in other words, drink organic cow's milk). Cow's milk is very rich in important nutrients and wholesome qualities that can't be found in any other food product, and the qualities present in cow's milk are especially essential for the proper development of human brain tissues. Cows who are treated with love and respect reciprocate with humans by freely providing milk and its important nutrients in a loving exchange, which is a type of exchange in which plants are unable to participate. In that sense, the nutrients from ahimsa milk are especially meant for human beings in a way that's simply not possible for the nutrients from plant sources. Therefore ahimsa milk is even more appropriate for human consumption than any vegan food source could ever be. In addition, the vegan lifestyle -- wherein machines are used to till the earth instead of bulls -- kills many innocent animals directly, by crushing and mutilating their bodies under the extremely heavy mechanized vehicles, such as tractors and other gasoline-run vehicles. Using gasoline-run vehicles for this purpose instead of bulls also creates environmental havoc, which in turn causes a lot of unnecessary suffering and death among animals all over the planet. The lacto-vegetarian lifestyle does not cause any of those problems, whereas the vegan lifestyle does cause them. So-called "vegan" agriculture also kills bulls and cows and uses their dead body parts as fertilizer, a gruesome practice in which lacto-vegetarian agriculture does not engage. As long as you eat animal flesh or eggs, you will never be truly peaceful. As long as you eat a vegan diet, you will never be truly satisfied.