Myth: Farmers Don't Care About Their Animals

There are a lot of videos and articles circulating the Internet that could make you believe farmers do not care about their animals. However, this could not be farther from the truth.

I'm sure that most people have seen videos from PETA or other organizations that show dairy animals constantly being exploited and harmed.

Are these accurate? No. The videos and accusations have been taken out of context. The animals in those videos could be considered "down cows." What that means is the cow or animal has fallen ill in some way, laid down and won't get back up. For those of you that don't know, when cows lay down and do not get up, it causes them to lose blood flow to their limbs, which then would prevent them from getting up. Farmers must do everything they can to make sure the cow gets back up. If she doesn't, they lose their product, and possibly their livelihood. According to Dairy Carrie, sometimes farmers are mean to their cows. They will prod them, use a skid steer and yell at them. However, it's not what you think. When it comes down to the wire, farmers may use a hip lift with a skid steer to lift the animal. Why? Because cows weigh 1,500-1,800 pounds.

(To read more about this, check out Dairy Carrie's article at http://dairycarrie.com/2013/12/09/cowabuse)

Farming is a business; the animals are apart of that business. The United States Department of Agriculture has issued an Animal Welfare Act statement which states that animals must be treated fairly and humane (the statement can be found at http://1.usa.gov/1KVlGI8).

The myth of farmers not caring about their animals is: false.

Sure, there's always people who will mistreat their animals and they'll always be the ones who ruin it for everyone else. However, these individuals are in a minority because farmers DO care about their animals. It's in their blood, it's their true passion and more importantly, their identity.