Documentary ‘Maa Ka Doodh’ Exposes the Harsh Reality of India’s Dairy Industry

If you follow PETA India on Instagram, you’ll have likely seen an excerpt from an eye-opening documentary, Maa Ka Doodh, featuring Hon’ble MP Smt Maneka Gandhi. In the video, Smt Gandhi calls the dairy industry the “root of all cruelty” and explains how cows and buffaloes suffer on dairy farms. They have no choice but to stand in their faeces all day long, are never allowed to exercise – which contributes to arthritis and the spread of tuberculosis among other health issues – and are fed dry straw and dirty fodder before eventually being killed for beef.

Watch the full documentary, by Dr Harsha Atmakuri, below which is also available in English, Gujarati and Marathi languages.

Since female cows and buffaloes need to be either pregnant or to have recently given birth to be able to produce milk, they are repeatedly impregnated. To do this, workers insert an arm – often without lubricant – into the struggling, frightened animal’s rectum and push a metal rod carrying bull semen into her vagina. This is just as much of a violation as it would be if done to a non-consenting female human, a dog, or any other animal.

Calves are taken from their mothers soon after they’re born, which causes both mother and baby extreme distress. Female calves are often raised on a milk replacer instead of being nourished by their mother’s milk and then go on to be used as milk machines, just like their mothers. Male calves – viewed by the industry as unprofitable because they don’t produce milk – are abandoned, left to starve, or killed outright.

In the documentary, Smt Gandhi urges everyone to stop buying dairy, explaining that the beef industry is able to exist in India largely because the dairy sector supplies it with animals to kill. The same goes for leather. If you care about cows and buffaloes, share this documentary with your family and friends.

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