farm-365:

Ignorance of militant vegans on A.i

People often say to vegans, what will happen to all the cows. The answer vegans usualy give is the cow population will fall when we stop impregnating cows. Well that that has to be one of the stupidest vegan answer (There are lots). They clearly dont understand how A.I (atrificial insemination) works.

• A.I is carried out on a cow when she is in heat. This is usually shown when other cows are mounting her like the picture shown. So if we didnt carry out artificial insemination in a herd a bull would be used just like in the past. This dosnt change how often a cow gives birth as even buffalos give birth once a year.

• The idea that reduced demand will reduce the cow population without slaughter because for some strange reason the cow will no longer calf once a year is absurd.
• The idea that cows are “raped”. This is yet enother example of anthromphization. Cow don’t kick or vocalise when being inseminated. If they wanted, they could kill the technition, but they don’t. Why? Its because cows don’t preceive it in the same way as humans preceive being raped. If she did its highly likely the practice wound be impossible to be carried out without cows and people getting hurt. Also artificial insemination needs precision to be carried out successfully.
• Why farmers use A.I One of the most popular reasons is safety. Bulls are territorial creature and even some of the friendliest bulls have been know to attack, seriously injury and kill people, each year in every country. Another is to safegaurd against inbreeding. Also a bull is very heavy and can injure cows. Breeding a balenced cow that has better health traits is very hard when using a stock bull. Last but not least sexed semen. Sexed semen allows for mostly dairy female calves. Then after enough cows are incalf to dairy sires a beef sire most commonly angus (in Ireland) are used after that. Also stops the spread of STIs. Thanks @dairyisntscary for reminding me about that.

Anyone who thinks AI is rape needs to actually look at how the procedure is done. The cow’s head is held in place so it doesn’t just walk away, maybe someone holds the tail, and that’s about it in terms of restraint. 

And if you watch a video, the cows clearly don’t care. Even the ones not used to the procedure don’t really do anything, they just stand there, maybe look back at what’s going on or shift a little bit. 

Cows are large, strong animals. If they have a significant objection to something, they show it. AI is no big deal for them, or for most other animals it’s done on. It’s certainly a heck of a lot less rough than introducing an entire male animal to the situation.