Calves are deprived of their share of milk in the dairy industry. Newly born male calves are largely unwanted. They are sent to slaughter, or sent out to fend for themselves. Or they are tied to a pole to die slowly of starvation. Their carcasses are then collected to make ‘ahimsic’ leather products. In the West, they are sold to veal farms at birth, endure the 14-17 weeks before slaughter in isolation in veal crates that prevent movement and are fed an anaemia inducing diet so as to produce the tender white veal meat. Some male calves have their stomachs slit soon after birth, while they are still alive, to make rennet for the cheese industry. In India, this is supposed to be banned in favour of microbial rennet.

Heart-rending scenes bear testimony to the anguish suffered by cows at the repeated loss of their young. Female calves are spared death and raised up to join their mothers as milk producers. They are allowed to feed on their mother’s milk very sparingly. Even most ‘goshalas’, built for the welfare of cows, separate the calf from its mother in order to milk her.