Buffalo
The water buffalo is endangered in the wild
but is increasingly farmed in the UK for meat and dairy
products.
Consumers horrified
by the treatment of cows within the dairy industry may ask themselves if the
production of buffalo products, such as milk and cheese, is less
exploitative. Farmed buffalo are
exploited in the same ways as dairy cows; guidelines for buffalo are no
different to those applied to ordinary dairy herds. Water buffalo undergo a range of mutilations
and restrictions during their lifetime.
As with dairy cows, slaughter at the end of their productive lives is
inevitable.
In the wild water buffalo spend much of
their day submerged in the muddy tropical and subtropical forests of Asia to which they adapted. A far cry from the temperate fields and
winter housing regimes of UK
buffalo farms.
Buffalo Milk
As with all other mammals, a water buffalo secretes milk from her
mammary glands to nourish her young calf until weaned. Before a water buffalo can produce milk, in
common with other species of mammal, she must first become pregnant and give
birth. Once born the calf is removed so
that the mother’s milk can be taken for human consumption as milk or cheese etc.
Left to their own devices water buffalo would normally produce a calf
every two years1 but in dairy farming they are bred every year.2
The mother water buffalo then enters a constant cycle of pregnancy,
lactation and forced separation from her young.
She will be slaughtered when her milk yield drops.
Water buffalo are
milked like dairy cows in the same parlours. Livestock farmers
acknowledge that water buffalos are more difficult to parlor train than dairy
cows,3 as water buffalos are
regarded as more intelligent than dairy cows4 this suggests that
being unnaturally milked (rather
than suckled by her calf) could be stressful.
Breeding
Water Buffalos have more difficulty
conceiving by artificial insemination (AI) compared to standard dairy cows so
are usually mated naturally. However
research is being undertaken to develop breeding programs for water buffalos
that will “improve productivity” and
reduce the “interval between generations”5
(reduce the age that the mother is able to give birth). As with dairy cows the water buffalo will be mated
or inseminated again months after giving birth to her calf.
Overworked
The double burden of pregnancy and
lactation imposes enormous stress on the body.
Dairy industries themselves acknowledge that “producing milk is one of the most energy demanding biological processes”
and that “weight loss is common in high
producing animals during the first month of lactation because they can not
consume a sufficient amount of energy.”6 To keep pace the water
buffalo’s food is supplemented with concentrated feeds.
Winter
Housing
Like dairy cows,
water buffalo are annually confined to winter quarters; this means that for up
to six months the herd is housed in sheds.
Forced
Separation
Left to their own devices calves would
naturally suckle from their mothers for six to twelve months. On buffalo farms calves are taken from their
mothers within days so that the mother’s milk can be bottled for humans
instead.
The fate of the
calf depends on what sex the calf is. Female
calves are used for milk production while male buffalo calves will be raised
for meat.
Castration
Rules governing water buffalo are the same
as those governing cattle so methods of castration are the same. There are currently three different ways in
which a water buffalo calf may be castrated.
A common method is the elastrator method which involves placing a rubber
ring over the scrotum within a week of birth and leaving it in place at the
base. The elastrator will cause the
scrotum and testes to shrink, wither and drop off after about two weeks. This
method is cheap but causes a great deal of pain to the animal.
“Bloodless
castration” involves the use of a Burdizzo which is essentially a large pair of
pincers with blunt ends. This is clamped around the spermatic cord of each
testicle in turn, crushing it and the blood vessels at the base of the
scrotum. Despite the obvious pain that
this method causes calves less than two months of age may be castrated in this
way without the use of any pain relief.7
During surgical
castration the bottom of the scrotum is cut open and each testicle is pulled
out, the wound is left open in order to drain. Only a veterinary surgeon can legally castrate
a calf.8
The Farm Animal
Welfare Council (FAWC) describes castration as “an undesirable mutilation
which should be avoided if at all possible” and that “irrespective of the age of the calf, all three methods
of castration appear to cause acute pain”9
Dairy
Farming & Meat Production – the Link
When the water
buffalo’s milk levels drops she is sent for slaughter and is quickly replaced
with a more profitable animal. The
belief that animals are not killed in the production of milk for human
consumption is a myth.
Transportation
& Slaughter
The business of killing farm animals has
become concentrated into fewer and larger slaughterhouses. This means that animals are transported over
longer distances on their final journey.
At the slaughterhouse the water buffalo are held in a
stunning pen where they are stunned using a captive bolt pistol. They are then shackled by the leg, and their
throats slit. After the blood has
drained away the animals’ body is dismembered.
Organic
and “humane” Dairy Farming
The basic principles of modern dairying are
also found in organic milk production: continual pregnancies, forced separation
and slaughter.
Plant
Milks
Nutritious plant
based milks are free from saturated fat and are usually lower in total fat than
Buffalo or cows
milk. Buffalo and cows milk contain calcium but so do vegan foods
such as green leafy vegetables, fortified soya milks and evan orange juice. Today there is not only soya milk but
oat milk, rice milk, quinoa milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk and hemp milk.
References
[1] National Geographic. Water
Buffalo. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/water-buffalo.html
(accessed 09/01/2009).
[2] Buffalo
Milk. Husbandry & Management. http://www.buffalomilk.co.uk/id26.htm
(accessed 09/01/2009).
[3] Buffalo
Milk. Milk Production. http://www.buffalomilk.co.uk/id26.htm (accessed 09/01/2009).
[4] RIRDC (1997) A handbook for Farmers and Investors. Rural Industries Research &
Development Corporation. http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/waterbuff.html
(accessed 12/01/2009).
[5] DeLaval. Reproduction
and Breeding.
http://www.delaval.com/Dairy_Knowledge/EfficientBuffalo/Reproduction-and-breeding.htm
(accessed 12/01/2009).
[6] Ibid.
[7] Defra (2003) Code of Recommendations for the Welfare of Cattle. Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, London,
p. 2
[8] Ibid
[9] FAWC (1997) Report on the Welfare of Dairy Cattle. Farm Animal Welfare Council. Surbiton,
Surrey.