Vegans: Please Stop Doing This. It’s Annoying AF.

You have no idea how irritating it is to find this level of ignorance on a social media platform like Reddit.

Que the screenshots.

The first is from the original post. It’s a cute video of a newborn calf with his mother gently sniffing at him and a hand from a friendly girl reaching through the fence to pet the calf.

This second screenshot irritated me, so I decided to post it here instead of responding with a snarky comment.

Vegans, please stop pulling this shit. It makes you look foolish.

First of all, this is a beef cow-calf pair.

Second, it’s quite clear the OC (original commenter who received only three downvotes and deserved many more) was blatantly lying in their last response. Or they were just trying to act all smart and got caught… making false assumptions.

No doubt they assumed they were dairy cows, not beef.

There are a number of VERY distinct differences between the two types.

See, it’s with dairy cattle that the calf is separated from the cow soon after birth. The reason is for the safety of the calf. It’s also because mothering ability has been bred out of most dairy cows.

Cows largely don’t care about their newborn calf and won’t bother to bond with it. Hormonal cows can be very dangerous to a new calf. They will try to kill it instead of lick at it and nurture it like anyone expects a mother to.

Newborn calves are not killed soon after birth. This is a ridiculous myth purveyed by animal activists who don’t know all that much about dairy farming.

Both male and female calves (bull and heifer calves) are cared for in facilities separate from the main cow herd. They are fed milk, have nice warm bedding, get their poop scooped out every day, and get water and feed. They’re kept separate from each other for the first few weeks to let their immunity get up to par, and after that, they’re put into group housing.

Male calves, unlike what activists love to tell everyone, aren’t killed soon after birth for veal. There’s just not enough meat on a newborn to justify it. They’re raised to around six months old before being slaughtered for veal. A six-month-old calf is no baby.

But what’s this stupidity about separating them and then killing them?

Let’s be honest: Yes, cows do get sent to slaughter once they’re deemed as no longer productive. It’s very costly to keep and feed non-productive cows compared with cows that literally earn their keep. It’s expensive enough as it is to keep and raise beef or dairy cows, so for people like the OC to expect farmers to keep back every single unproductive free-loader cow is just asking for a heated argument and the making of enemies. Cows don’t live forever, and it’s not a terrible thing to turn them into food for people and pets.

Again, what’s the point of killing a newborn calf? There’s literally no point unless that calf is so severely injured or ill that there’s no other alternate solution. Clearly, that little bull calf is the picture of perfect health!

And, let’s assume the cow is still productive, with many years left before her to mother more calves. Why kill her if that’s the case? It literally makes no sense!

It’s the exact same thing if she were a dairy cow.

Let’s round right back to this very cow-calf pair.

As I said above, this is a BEEF cow, and her calf is a BEEF calf. If the OC were telling the truth (we can surmise, again, that they weren’t), they’d fully know that this pair would remain together for several months until it’s time to wean the calf.

BEEF cows, unlike dairy cows, have great mothering instincts and take good care of their calves. They bond quickly, and keep tabs on their little ones until it’s time to wean them. Most beef calves are weaned when they are between 6 to 10 months old. As I mentioned with veal calves, calves at that age aren’t exactly babies anymore. They’re almost teenagers at that age.

They wouldn’t be making such an asinine statement, that’s for sure.

This Hereford cow and her Hereford calf will continue to live for the next several years, that is for certain.

What is also for certain is that people like the OC need to learn to take their foot out of their mouth, stop the irksome smartsie-fartsie barefaced lies, and actually learn something.

I highly encourage other self-proclaimed vegans to do the same.