Welcome to Small Bytes, Sound Bytes, a midweek segment of food for thought podcast where I share short, succinct, thoughtful responses to typical questions, myths, and misconceptions related to plant-based eating, veganism, and animal protection.

You can get written transcripts of this podcast by going to joyfulvegan.com slash donate.

Some people have been told that cows need to be milked or they would get sick and die.

Now, when the utters of cows become filled with milk, the natural response, as with any mammal, is to express the milk, which the offspring would take care of in nature by nursing.

The case for humans as well. If this milk is not expressed, then the utters may become engorged, they may swell, and they may throb, all of which makes the utters very painful and prone to mastitis, which is the inflammation of the mammary glands, and which can result in death if left untreated.

Human intervention, i.e. milking the cow, certainly relieves her discomfort, but it's not out of kindness that the dairy owner expresses the utters of his cows.

It's out of necessity for his business plan dictates it. A dairy operator impregnates cows in order to take their milk and sell it.

He doesn't deserve credit for doing so. He gets paid for doing so.

Cows are not cases of charity. They are owned commodities, useful only while they produce milk and sent to slaughter when they stop.

The solution isn't, let's milk cows, the solution is to stop bringing cows into this world for the purpose of using them and killing them.

For the animals, this is Colleen Patrick Goodrow. You can find me at joyfulvegan.com. Thanks for listening.