• Female cows are strapped to a rack and inseminated with semen stored in a massive syringe. There are 9 million dairy cows in the United States. Nearly every one of them suffers immensely from the results of this experience. 

 

• Because the cow’s milk has been reserved for human consumption, the calf is forcibly removed from the mother soon (and sometimes immediately) after birth.

 

• The mother’s offspring, depending on sex, will face one of two fates. Male dairy calves become “veal calves.” Some of them are slaughtered while only a few days old, others within a few months–it all depends on the kind of meat desired by the market. The female dairy calves, for their part, follow in their mothers’ footsteps. They’re fattened and prepared for impregnation at the age of fourteen months.

 

• The normal lifespan of a female cow is around 20 years old. The typical dairy cow, who goes through several rounds of forced impregnations, experiences a drop in milk production after five years. Dairy cows not only routinely develop mastitis, but they enter the gates of the abattoir(Slaughter house) somewhere between the ages of 5-7. 

Courtesy :James McWilliams, Professor of History at Texas State University

Keeping all the above points in reference, it is very clear that the gallons of milk (does not matter whether it is industry farm or family farm) we buy from the supermarket shelf is a product of exploitation and violence.

Traditionally, religious bathing of the Deities with milk was done because milk was available in plenty and it was obtained without any violence as below:

1. Milk from a cow would be taken only after the calf is done with cow's milk.

2. Cows were not routinely subjected to artificial impregnation.

3. Even after a cow stops producing milk, it was taken care of well until its natural death.

IT IS HIGH TIME THAT WE STOP FOLLOWING THE PRACTICE OF RELIGIOUS BATHING OF HINDU DEITIES USING MILK OBTAINED THROUGH VIOLENCE AND EXPLOITATION.

RELIGIOUS BATHING OF HINDU DEITIES WITH MILK SHOULD BE DONE WITH MILK OBTAINED FROM A GOSHALA (COW SANCTUARY or FARM).

SOME TEMPLES HAVE ALREADY STARTED THEIR OWN GOSHALA to procure milk for their temple. For other temples to follow the same footsteps, the DEVOTEES should stop buying or sponsoring milk.