MILCH: ALLE INFORMATIONEN ZUR PRODUKTION UND ZUM KONSUM

Die Milchwirtschaft ist mit 20 Prozent Marktanteil der grösste Sektor der Schweizer Landwirtschaft. [1] Anders als idyllische Bilder aus der Milchwerbung vermuten lassen, ist das Leben der Kühe in der Milchindustrie von körperlichem und psychischem Stress sowie Entbehrung und Krankheit geprägt.

Neben Kühen werden auch für Ziegen-, Schaf-, Pferde- und Büffelmilchprodukte Tiere ausgebeutet, gequält und weit vor ihrer natürlichen Lebenserwartung getötet –auch für Bio-Produkte.

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

Trennung von Kühen und ihren neugeborenen Kälbern

Viele Menschen denken, dass Kühe immer Milch geben – doch Kühe produzieren Milch aus demselben Grund wie Menschen: um ihre Neugeborenen zu ernähren. Kuhmütter können ihre Kinder in der Regel aber nicht säugen und umsorgen, denn die Kälber werden ihnen entrissen und erhalten statt der Milch ihrer Mutter lediglich einen Milchersatz.

Wie die Menschenfrau ist auch die Kuh neun Monate schwanger, bevor sie ihr Kalb zur Welt bringt. Meist werden die Tierbabys unmittelbar oder nur wenige Stunden nach der Geburt von ihren Müttern getrennt, damit sie die für sie vorgesehene Milch nicht trinken können. Oft schreien Mütter und Babys tagelang verzweifelt nacheinander. Die Kälber werden meist einzeln in Kälberboxen bzw. Kälberiglus gesperrt, die kaum grösser als eine Badewanne sind. Erst nach zwei Wochen Einsamkeit werden die Tierkinder in Gruppen gehalten – ihre Mütter sehen sie jedoch nie wieder. [2]

Die Trennung von der Mutter ist für das Kalb nur eine von vielen schmerzhaften Erfahrungen, denn schon kurz nach der Geburt muss es mehrere Eingriffe über sich ergehen lassen: Zunächst werden die Tierkinder mit Ohrmarken gekennzeichnet, was ihr trauriges Dasein als blosse Nummer besiegelt. Danach erfolgt oftmals die schmerzhafte Enthornung, bei der der Hornansatz mit einem mehrere Hundert Grad heissen Eisen abgebrannt wird. Teilweise leiden die Tierkinder noch Monate danach an Schmerzen – einige sogar ihr Leben lang. [3]

Kuehe im Stall fressen

Einigen Kälbern, aber auch erwachsenen Tieren wird ein mit Stacheln besetzter «Saugstopp-Nasenring» durch die empfindliche Nasenscheidewand gestochen, der verhindern soll, dass die Tiere ihren Saugtrieb aneinander ausleben.

MILK: ALL INFORMATION ON PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION With a 20 percent market share, the dairy industry is the largest sector of Swiss agriculture . [1] Contrary to what idyllic pictures in milk advertisements suggest, the life of cows in the dairy industry is characterized by physical and psychological stress, deprivation and illness. In addition to cows, animals are also exploited, tortured and killed far before their natural life expectancy for goat, sheep, horse and buffalo milk products - also for organic products. Table of Contents: Separation of cows and their newborn calves Cows are degraded to milk machines Cows often suffer from painful diseases Painful life through slatted floors and tethering Dairy industry supports veal industry Is milk healthy? Milk is bad for the environment and the climate How you can help the animals in the dairy industry Separation of cows and their newborn calves Many people think cows always give milk, but cows produce milk for the same reason humans do: to feed their newborns. As a rule, however, cow mothers cannot nurse and care for their children, because the calves are snatched away from them and only receive milk substitutes instead of their mother's milk. Like the human woman, the cow is nine months pregnant before giving birth to her calf. The baby animals are usually separated from their mothers immediately or only a few hours after birth so that they cannot drink the milk intended for them. Mothers and babies often cry desperately at each other for days. The calves are usually locked up individually in calf boxes or calf igloos that are hardly larger than a bathtub. Only after two weeks of solitude are the baby animals kept in groups – but they never see their mothers again. [2] Unfortunately, we cannot show you this content due to your cookie settings. You can adjust the settings here or enable all cookies here . Separation from the mother is just one of many painful experiences for the calf, because shortly after birth it has to endure several interventions: First, the baby animals are marked with ear tags, which seals their sad existence as a mere number. This is often followed by the painful dehorning, in which the horn base is burned off with an iron several hundred degrees hot. Sometimes the baby animals still suffer from pain for months afterwards – some even for the rest of their lives. [3] Some calves, but also adult animals, have a spiked "suck stop nose ring" stuck through the sensitive nasal septum to prevent the animals from acting out their sucking instinct on each other. After the birth of their calf, cows produce milk for about ten months. To keep the milk flow consistently high and therefore profitable, the cows are inseminated again every year to give birth to another calf. So the cycle starts all over again. Cows are degraded to milk machines In the dairy industry, cows are treated like milk machines. To ensure that cows produce milk as quickly as possible and are economical for the company, they are artificially inseminated for the first time on most dairy farms between the ages of 1.5 and 2 years. Since the mothers themselves are very young when they give birth, the risk of complications is very high. Targeted breeding drives the bodies of the cows to peak performance. The animals are malnourished with large amounts of "concentrated feed" and receive a large number of antibiotics . This is the only way cows are able to produce an unnatural amount of milk. Although there are fewer cows in Switzerland today than there were a few decades ago, the amount of milk has increased since then: Under natural conditions, animals only produce as much milk as their offspring need – for cows that is around eight liters a day. [4] In the dairy industry, some cows now produce up to 50 liters a day. [5] This unnatural amount of milk has drastic consequences for the health and life expectancy of the animals. If there are high veterinary costs or a cow no longer becomes pregnant and is therefore no longer economically relevant for the dairy farm, it is killed in the slaughterhouse. Many cows are already killed at the age of about five years - the natural life expectancy of a cow is about 20 years. Every year, thousands of cows are pregnant when they are killed, causing the calves to suffocate in their wombs. [6] We humans are the only species that consciously drinks the milk of other species and exploits living beings for it. This type of inequality and discrimination is called speciesism . Animals are arbitrarily divided into categories such as "farm animals" and "pets," even though every living being, like us humans, has a right to a peaceful and self-determined life. Cows are not dairy machines, but social individuals who want to breastfeed, protect, and care for their newborns. Cows often suffer from painful diseases Early pregnancies, poor housing conditions, unnaturally high milk yields due to breeding, wrong nutrition - this is the life of cows in the dairy industry. It is therefore not surprising that cows often suffer from painful udder disorders, abomasal displacement, fertility problems and lameness. mastitis In cows that are exploited for milk production, painful mastitis, also known as mastitis, is widespread. The constant milking irritates the udders and foreign bodies such as bacteria can get in via the milking machines. Mastitis is one of the most common reasons farmers have their cows killed prematurely. abomasum displacement Displaced abomasum occurs in dairy cows mostly shortly after birth. In the disease, the abomasum shifts to the right or left and can lead to the death of the organ. Displacement of the abomasum is promoted, among other things, by too high a dose of so-called concentrated feed, which is used to increase milk yield. Life of suffering in all attitudes More than half a million cows lead a life full of deprivation on Swiss dairy farms. Many spend most if not all of their lives indoors, mostly on concrete and slatted floors, regardless of their basic needs. In Switzerland, half of the “dairy cows” are tied up in so-called tethered housing for life, in which they cannot even turn around. [7] The other half of the cows are kept in so-called free stalls, which are advertised by the animal industry as particularly "cow-friendly". [7] However, the truth is different: Most cows suffer from sore legs and hooves due to the slippery and dirt-covered slatted floor. Many get swellings and abscesses due to the hard and usually too small cubicles. Milk consumption supports the veal industry Many people deliberately avoid eating meat to prevent animal deaths. However, many are not aware that the consumption of milk and cheese also supports the veal industry. This is because countless male calves are born during the production of milk, which are of no economic use to dairy farms and are therefore killed. After the separation of mother and child, most male calves do not stay on the farm, but are usually sold to fattening farms for a few francs or killed - sometimes illegally. [8] Male animal children are not profitable for the dairy industry, because they produce no milk and, due to breeding for milk, hardly produce any meat. A few weeks or months after their birth, the fattened calves are killed in the agonizing slaughterhouse, while the female calves face the same miserable life as their mothers. The situation is hardly different in organic farming either: Whoever buys organic milk often even supports conventional animal husbandry, because the focus is also on profitability in the organic sector. Since there is often no market for male calves, they are housed in conventional farms a few weeks after birth, where they are fattened and killed after a short time - in Switzerland there are 20,000 to 25,000 "organic calves" a year. [8] Even in organic farming, mother and calf are separated from each other and many animals have to eke out their lives in temporary tethering. [9] Is milk healthy? People of all ages are dependent on animal milk for a healthy diet: [10] The human body does not need specific foods, but specific nutrients. We humans can also absorb all the nutrients contained in animal products through plant foods or supplement them if necessary. Dairy consumption even promotes health problems – including acne [11], constipation [12], asthma [13], obesity [14] and various types of cancer such as breast cancer [15] and prostate cancer. [16] Milk is bad for the environment and the climate Agricultural animal husbandry - and thus the consumption of animal products - is one of the main causes of the greatest environmental problems our time. For example, the global animal economy causes more greenhouse gases than the entire transport sector. [17] On the one hand, the emissions are caused indirectly by the deforestation of South American forests for new pastures and the cultivation of food for animal husbandry, also for the Swiss dairy industry, on the other hand directly through the digestion process and the excretions of the animals: [18] So-called dairy cows are for Responsible for 34 percent of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland. A cow emits 300 to 500 liters of methane every day, one of the most climate-damaging gases. [19] As a result, the production of dairy products has a poor eco-balance . Butter is considered the most climate-damaging food, cheese takes third place. [20] According to an Oxford study and the Swiss research institute Agroscope, the production of milk requires around twice the land area and causes twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as the production of average soy milk. [21] What you can do about animal suffering in the dairy industry The only way to save cows from the misery of the dairy industry is to use cruelty-free vegetable alternatives instead of milk or other dairy products. There are a wide variety of milk alternatives based on oats, soy, lupins, almonds or coconut. Try them out and find your favorite among the many plant drinks. Discover the variety of plant-based milk alternatives and vegan cuisine - for the animals, the environment and your health. The free Veganstart program offers you help with getting started . Sign up to receive useful tips and delicious recipes for 30 days. Register now

Nach der Geburt ihres Kalbes produzieren Kühe etwa zehn Monate lang Milch. Damit der Milchfluss konstant hoch und damit profitabel bleibt, werden die Kühe jedes Jahr erneut besamt, um ein weiteres Kalb auf die Welt zu bringen. Somit beginnt der Kreislauf von vorne.

Kühe werden zu Milchmaschinen degradiert

In der Milchindustrie werden Kühe wie Milchmaschinen behandelt. Damit Kühe möglichst schnell Milch produzieren und für das Unternehmen wirtschaftlich sind, werden sie in den meisten Milchbetrieben im Alter zwischen 1,5 und 2 Jahren erstmals künstlich befruchtet. Da die Mütter bei der Geburt selbst noch sehr jung sind, ist das Risiko für Komplikationen sehr hoch. 

Gezielte Züchtung treibt die Körper der Kühe zu Hochleistungen an. Die Tiere werden mit grossen Mengen an «Kraftfutter» falsch ernährt und erhalten eine Vielzahl an Antibiotika. Nur so sind Kühe überhaupt in der Lage, unnatürlich viel Milch zu produzieren. 

Obwohl es in der Schweiz heutzutage weniger Kühe gibt als noch vor ein paar Jahrzehnten, ist die Milchmenge seither gestiegen: Unter natürlichen Bedingungen produzieren Tiere nur so viel Milch, wie ihr Nachwuchs benötigt – bei Kühen sind das etwa acht Liter täglich. [4] In der Milchindustrie produzieren manche Kühe heute bis zu 50 Liter am Tag. [5] Diese ­unnatürliche Milchmenge hat drastische Folgen für die Gesundheit und Lebenserwartung der Tiere.

Wenn hohe Tierarztkosten anfallen oder eine Kuh nicht mehr schwanger wird und dadurch für den Milchbetrieb keine wirtschaftliche Relevanz mehr aufweist, wird sie im Schlachthaus getötet. Viele Kühe werden bereits im Alter von etwa fünf Jahren getötet – die natürliche Lebenserwartung einer Kuh beträgt hingegen etwa 20 Jahre. Jedes Jahr sind Tausende Kühe bei ihrer Tötung sogar schwanger, sodass die Kälber qualvoll im Mutterleib ersticken. [6]

Wir Menschen sind die einzige Spezies, die bewusst die Milch anderer Spezies trinkt und Lebewesen dafür ausbeutet. Diese Art der Ungleichbehandlung und Diskriminierung nennt sich Speziesismus. Tiere werden willkürlich in Kategorien wie «Nutztiere» und «Haustiere» eingeteilt, obwohl jedes Lebewesen, genau wie wir Menschen, ein Recht auf ein friedliches und selbstbestimmtes Leben hat. Kühe sind keine Milchmaschinen, sondern soziale Individuen, die ihre Neugeborenen stillen, beschützen und umsorgen wollen.

Kühe leiden häufig an schmerzhaften Krankheiten

Frühe Schwangerschaften, schlechte Haltungsbedingungen, zuchtbedingt unnatürlich hohe Milchmengen, falsche Ernährung – dies ist das Leben von Kühen in der Milchindustrie. Es ist daher nicht überraschend, dass Kühe oftmals an schmerzhaften Eutererkrankungen, Labmagenverlagerung, Fertilitätsproblemen und Lahmheit leiden.

Euterentzündungen

Bei Kühen, die für die Milchproduktion ausgebeutet werden, sind schmerzhafte Euterentzündungen, auch Mastitis genannt, weit verbreitet. Durch das ständige Melken sind die Euter gereizt und Fremdkörper wie Bakterien können über die Melkmaschinen eindringen. Mastitis gehört zu den häufigsten Gründen, aus denen Landwirte ihre Kühe vorzeitig töten lassen.

Labmagenverlagerung

Die Labmagenverlagerung tritt bei Kühen in der Milchindustrie meist kurz nach der Geburt auf. Bei der Erkrankung verlagert sich der Labmagen nach rechts oder links und kann zum Absterben des Organs führen. Begünstigt wird die Labmagenverlagerung unter anderem durch eine zu hohe Gabe an sogenanntem Kraftfutter, das eingesetzt wird, um die Milchleistung zu erhöhen.

Leidvolles Leben in allen Haltungsformen

Über eine halbe Million Kühe fristen in Schweizer Milchbetrieben ein entbehrungsreiches Leben. Viele verbringen einen Grossteil oder sogar ihr ganzes Leben ungeachtet ihrer grundlegenden Bedürfnisse im Stall – meist auf Beton- und Spaltenböden. In der Schweiz wird die Hälfte der «Milchkühe» lebenslang in der sogenannten Anbindehaltung fixiert, in der sie sich nicht einmal umdrehen können. [7] Die andere Hälfte der Kühe wird in sogenannten Laufställen gehalten, die von der Tierindustrie als besonders «kuhfreundlich» beworben werden. [7] Die Wahrheit sieht jedoch anders aus: Aufgrund des rutschigen und kotverdreckten Spaltenbodens leiden die meisten Kühe an schmerzenden Beinen und Klauen. Viele bekommen Liegeschwellen und Abszesse aufgrund der harten und meist zu kleinen Liegeboxen.

Milchkonsum unterstützt die Kalbfleisch-Industrie

Viele Menschen essen bewusst kein Fleisch, um den Tod von Tieren zu verhindern. Vielen ist jedoch nicht bewusst, dass auch der Konsum von Milch und Käse die Kalbfleisch-Industrie unterstützt. Denn bei der Produktion von Milch werden auch unzählige männliche Kälber geboren, die für Milchbetriebe keinen wirtschaftlichen Nutzen haben und daher getötet werden.

MILK: ALL INFORMATION ON PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION With a 20 percent market share, the dairy industry is the largest sector of Swiss agriculture . [1] Contrary to what idyllic pictures in milk advertisements suggest, the life of cows in the dairy industry is characterized by physical and psychological stress, deprivation and illness. In addition to cows, animals are also exploited, tortured and killed far before their natural life expectancy for goat, sheep, horse and buffalo milk products - also for organic products. Table of Contents: Separation of cows and their newborn calves Cows are degraded to milk machines Cows often suffer from painful diseases Painful life through slatted floors and tethering Dairy industry supports veal industry Is milk healthy? Milk is bad for the environment and the climate How you can help the animals in the dairy industry Separation of cows and their newborn calves Many people think cows always give milk, but cows produce milk for the same reason humans do: to feed their newborns. As a rule, however, cow mothers cannot nurse and care for their children, because the calves are snatched away from them and only receive milk substitutes instead of their mother's milk. Like the human woman, the cow is nine months pregnant before giving birth to her calf. The baby animals are usually separated from their mothers immediately or only a few hours after birth so that they cannot drink the milk intended for them. Mothers and babies often cry desperately at each other for days. The calves are usually locked up individually in calf boxes or calf igloos that are hardly larger than a bathtub. Only after two weeks of solitude are the baby animals kept in groups – but they never see their mothers again. [2] Unfortunately, we cannot show you this content due to your cookie settings. You can adjust the settings here or enable all cookies here . Separation from the mother is just one of many painful experiences for the calf, because shortly after birth it has to endure several interventions: First, the baby animals are marked with ear tags, which seals their sad existence as a mere number. This is often followed by the painful dehorning, in which the horn base is burned off with an iron several hundred degrees hot. Sometimes the baby animals still suffer from pain for months afterwards – some even for the rest of their lives. [3] Some calves, but also adult animals, have a spiked "suck stop nose ring" stuck through the sensitive nasal septum to prevent the animals from acting out their sucking instinct on each other. After the birth of their calf, cows produce milk for about ten months. To keep the milk flow consistently high and therefore profitable, the cows are inseminated again every year to give birth to another calf. So the cycle starts all over again. Cows are degraded to milk machines In the dairy industry, cows are treated like milk machines. To ensure that cows produce milk as quickly as possible and are economical for the company, they are artificially inseminated for the first time on most dairy farms between the ages of 1.5 and 2 years. Since the mothers themselves are very young when they give birth, the risk of complications is very high. Targeted breeding drives the bodies of the cows to peak performance. The animals are malnourished with large amounts of "concentrated feed" and receive a large number of antibiotics . This is the only way cows are able to produce an unnatural amount of milk. Although there are fewer cows in Switzerland today than there were a few decades ago, the amount of milk has increased since then: Under natural conditions, animals only produce as much milk as their offspring need – for cows that is around eight liters a day. [4] In the dairy industry, some cows now produce up to 50 liters a day. [5] This unnatural amount of milk has drastic consequences for the health and life expectancy of the animals. If there are high veterinary costs or a cow no longer becomes pregnant and is therefore no longer economically relevant for the dairy farm, it is killed in the slaughterhouse. Many cows are already killed at the age of about five years - the natural life expectancy of a cow is about 20 years. Every year, thousands of cows are pregnant when they are killed, causing the calves to suffocate in their wombs. [6] We humans are the only species that consciously drinks the milk of other species and exploits living beings for it. This type of inequality and discrimination is called speciesism . Animals are arbitrarily divided into categories such as "farm animals" and "pets," even though every living being, like us humans, has a right to a peaceful and self-determined life. Cows are not dairy machines, but social individuals who want to breastfeed, protect, and care for their newborns. Cows often suffer from painful diseases Early pregnancies, poor housing conditions, unnaturally high milk yields due to breeding, wrong nutrition - this is the life of cows in the dairy industry. It is therefore not surprising that cows often suffer from painful udder disorders, abomasal displacement, fertility problems and lameness. mastitis In cows that are exploited for milk production, painful mastitis, also known as mastitis, is widespread. The constant milking irritates the udders and foreign bodies such as bacteria can get in via the milking machines. Mastitis is one of the most common reasons farmers have their cows killed prematurely. abomasum displacement Displaced abomasum occurs in dairy cows mostly shortly after birth. In the disease, the abomasum shifts to the right or left and can lead to the death of the organ. Displacement of the abomasum is promoted, among other things, by too high a dose of so-called concentrated feed, which is used to increase milk yield. Life of suffering in all attitudes More than half a million cows lead a life full of deprivation on Swiss dairy farms. Many spend most if not all of their lives indoors, mostly on concrete and slatted floors, regardless of their basic needs. In Switzerland, half of the “dairy cows” are tied up in so-called tethered housing for life, in which they cannot even turn around. [7] The other half of the cows are kept in so-called free stalls, which are advertised by the animal industry as particularly "cow-friendly". [7] However, the truth is different: Most cows suffer from sore legs and hooves due to the slippery and dirt-covered slatted floor. Many get swellings and abscesses due to the hard and usually too small cubicles. Milk consumption supports the veal industry Many people deliberately avoid eating meat to prevent animal deaths. However, many are not aware that the consumption of milk and cheese also supports the veal industry. This is because countless male calves are born during the production of milk, which are of no economic use to dairy farms and are therefore killed. After the separation of mother and child, most male calves do not stay on the farm, but are usually sold to fattening farms for a few francs or killed - sometimes illegally. [8] Male animal children are not profitable for the dairy industry, because they produce no milk and, due to breeding for milk, hardly produce any meat. A few weeks or months after their birth, the fattened calves are killed in the agonizing slaughterhouse, while the female calves face the same miserable life as their mothers. The situation is hardly different in organic farming either: Whoever buys organic milk often even supports conventional animal husbandry, because the focus is also on profitability in the organic sector. Since there is often no market for male calves, they are housed in conventional farms a few weeks after birth, where they are fattened and killed after a short time - in Switzerland there are 20,000 to 25,000 "organic calves" a year. [8] Even in organic farming, mother and calf are separated from each other and many animals have to eke out their lives in temporary tethering. [9] Is milk healthy? People of all ages are dependent on animal milk for a healthy diet: [10] The human body does not need specific foods, but specific nutrients. We humans can also absorb all the nutrients contained in animal products through plant foods or supplement them if necessary. Dairy consumption even promotes health problems – including acne [11], constipation [12], asthma [13], obesity [14] and various types of cancer such as breast cancer [15] and prostate cancer. [16] Milk is bad for the environment and the climate Agricultural animal husbandry - and thus the consumption of animal products - is one of the main causes of the greatest environmental problems our time. For example, the global animal economy causes more greenhouse gases than the entire transport sector. [17] On the one hand, the emissions are caused indirectly by the deforestation of South American forests for new pastures and the cultivation of food for animal husbandry, also for the Swiss dairy industry, on the other hand directly through the digestion process and the excretions of the animals: [18] So-called dairy cows are for Responsible for 34 percent of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland. A cow emits 300 to 500 liters of methane every day, one of the most climate-damaging gases. [19] As a result, the production of dairy products has a poor eco-balance . Butter is considered the most climate-damaging food, cheese takes third place. [20] According to an Oxford study and the Swiss research institute Agroscope, the production of milk requires around twice the land area and causes twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as the production of average soy milk. [21] What you can do about animal suffering in the dairy industry The only way to save cows from the misery of the dairy industry is to use cruelty-free vegetable alternatives instead of milk or other dairy products. There are a wide variety of milk alternatives based on oats, soy, lupins, almonds or coconut. Try them out and find your favorite among the many plant drinks. Discover the variety of plant-based milk alternatives and vegan cuisine - for the animals, the environment and your health. The free Veganstart program offers you help with getting started . Sign up to receive useful tips and delicious recipes for 30 days. Register now

Nach der Trennung von Mutter und Kind bleiben die meisten männlichen Kälber nicht auf dem Hof, sondern werden meist für ein paar Franken an Mastbetriebe verkauft oder getötet – teilweise auch illegal. [8] Für die Milchindustrie sind männliche Tierkinder nicht rentabel, denn sie produzieren keine Milch und setzen aufgrund der Züchtung auf Milch kaum Fleisch an. Wenige Wochen oder Monate nach ihrer Geburt werden die gemästeten Kälber qualvoll im Schlachthof getötet, während den weiblichen Kälbern das gleiche traurige Leben wie ihren Müttern bevorsteht.

Auch in der biologischen Landwirtschaft sieht es kaum anders aus: Wer Biomilch kauft, unterstützt oftmals sogar die konventionelle Tierwirtschaft, denn auch im Biobereich steht die Wirtschaftlichkeit im Vordergrund. Da es oftmals keinen Markt für männliche Kälber gibt, werden sie wenige Wochen nach der Geburt in konventionellen Betrieben untergebracht, wo sie gemästet und nach kurzer Zeit getötet werden – in der Schweiz sind es 20‘000 bis 25‘000 «Biokälbchen» im Jahr. [8] Auch in der Biohaltung werden Mutter und Kalb voneinander getrennt und viele Tiere müssen ihr Leben in zeitweiser Anbindehaltung fristen. [9]

Ist Milch gesund?

Für eine gesunde Ernährung sind Menschen in keinem Alter auf tierische Milch angewiesen: [10] Der menschliche Körper benötigt keine bestimmten Nahrungsmittel, sondern bestimmte Nährstoffe. Alle Nährstoffe, die in tierischen Produkten enthalten sind, können wir Menschen auch durch pflanzliche Lebensmittel aufnehmen oder bei Bedarf ergänzen. Der Konsum von Milchprodukten begünstigt sogar gesundheitliche Probleme – darunter Akne [11], Verstopfung [12], Asthma [13], Übergewicht [14] und verschiedene Krebsarten wie Brustkrebs [15] und Prostatakrebs. [16]

Milch ist schlecht für die Umwelt und das Klima

Die landwirtschaftliche Tierhaltung – und damit der Konsum tierischer Produkte – ist eine der Hauptursachen für die grössten Umweltprobleme unserer Zeit. Die globale Tierwirtschaft verursacht beispielsweise mehr Treibhausgase als der gesamte Verkehrssektor. [17] Die Emissionen ent­stehen zum einen indirekt durch die Abholzung von südamerikanischen Wäldern für neue Weideflächen und den Nahrungsmittelanbau für die Tierhaltung, auch für die Schweizer Milchwirtschaft, zum anderen direkt durch den Verdauungsprozess und die Ausscheidungen der Tiere: [18] Sogenannte Milchkühe sind für 34 Prozent aller landwirtschaftlichen Treibhausgasemissionen in der Schweiz verantwortlich. Eine Kuh stösst täglich mit 300 und 500 Litern Methan eine grosse Menge eines der klimaschädlichsten Gase aus. [19] Dadurch weist die Produktion von Milchprodukten eine schlechte Öko-Bilanz auf. Butter gilt als klimaschädlichstes Lebensmittel, Käse belegt den dritten Platz. [20]

Laut einer Oxford-Studie und dem Schweizer Forschungsinstitut Agroscope benötigt die Produktion von Milch etwa die zweifache Landfläche und verursacht doppelt so viele Treibhausgasemissionen wie die Herstellung durchschnittlicher Sojamilch. [21]

Was Sie gegen das Tierleid in der Milchindustrie tun können

Um Kühe vor dem Elend der Milchindustrie zu bewahren, hilft nur der Griff zu tierleidfreien pflanzlichen Alternativen statt zu Milch oder anderen Molkereierzeugnissen. Es gibt verschiedenste Milchalternativen auf der Basis von Hafer, Soja, Lupinen, Mandeln oder Kokos. Probieren Sie sich durch und finden Sie Ihren Favoriten unter den vielen Pflanzendrinks. Entdecken Sie die Vielfalt der pflanzlichen Milchalternativen und der veganen Küche – für die Tiere, die Umwelt und Ihre Gesundheit. Hilfe beim Einstieg bietet Ihnen das kostenlose Veganstart-Programm. Melden Sie sich an, um 30 Tage lang nützliche Tipps und leckere Rezepte zu erhalten.

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