A Dairy Cow Exploited Throughout Its Life? A Highly Biased Claim

Domestic Dairy Cow Artificial Insemination and Early Weaning as Choices from an Animal Welfare Perspective

On February 14th at 2 p.m., about ten women performed a topless demonstration at one side of Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. They are members of the Korean branch of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), a radical animal rights group that originated in California, USA, in 2013.

To mark Valentine’s Day, DxE held this performance to visualize the reality of animals being milked, hidden behind various dairy product packaging including chocolates. They shouted “Oppose violence against animals” and highlighted issues such as forced pregnancy and birth, milking, and reasons for muzzling calves. However, what they claim as “animal abuse and violence” is factually incorrect and can rather be seen as choices made from an animal welfare perspective.

■ Early Weaning: For the Health of Calves and Recovery of Mother Cows

DxE claims that dairy farms commonly use nipple shields to prevent calves from suckling their mothers. However, nipple shields are rarely used domestically. Instead, early weaning is chosen for its benefits such as minimizing stress on calves during weaning. In particular, calves are managed separately in individual pens for the health recovery of mother cows after giving birth, which also minimizes environmental stress.

Additionally, Professor Honggu Lee of the Department of Animal Resources at Konkuk University explained, “Early weaning and separate management of calves in pens provide advantages in terms of calf rearing environment by preventing diseases and minimizing environmental stress. Since early weaning offers many health and nutritional benefits to calves, describing it as calf abuse is problematic.”

■ Artificial Insemination: To Protect Dairy Cows from Reproductive Diseases

What DxE calls “rape for pregnancy” refers to artificial insemination performed on dairy cows. Artificial insemination means artificially injecting semen into the female animal’s reproductive tract without relying on natural mating. Generally, artificial insemination performed on dairy cows plays a positive role in animal welfare. Its primary purpose is to protect dairy cows from reproductive diseases.

Diseases such as trichomoniasis, vibriosis, brucellosis, and vaginitis, which are transmitted through direct genital contact with males, cause significant stress to females and can even be fatal.

Moreover, in natural mating, fierce fights among males competing for females can cause severe injuries or death, whereas artificial insemination prevents this. Artificial insemination also provides breeding opportunities when natural mating is not possible. This is understandable considering that humans also undergo artificial insemination when natural pregnancy is not feasible.

The initial motivation for introducing artificial insemination in livestock was not production but the prevention of reproductive diseases. Therefore, it should not be interpreted negatively as “animal abuse.”

Regarding this, Professor Honggu Lee of Konkuk University’s Department of Animal Resources stated, “Recently, some animal welfare groups have emphasized only the negative aspects of artificial insemination and labeled it as animal abuse. Artificial insemination is essential not only for animal welfare but also for the livestock and dairy industries and academic research. Ethical efforts to minimize stress in livestock environments remain important.”

Meanwhile, there has been an increase in the indiscriminate online spread of foreign materials containing shocking or provocative content, or content that is inaccurate or unclear. The claims mentioned in DxE’s performance are no exception. They are completely different from the domestic situation and have caused confusion among consumers with baseless assertions.

Some netizens who have seen videos and media reports related to DxE’s performance have also expressed concerned voices. Negative reactions include comments such as “If you can’t kill livestock or fish, then what will you eat?”, “Plants have feelings too, don’t eat anything,” and “Why are they taking off their clothes and making a fuss? What’s the reason? You should also understand the feelings of people with different opinions.”