Secrecy and Intimidation at Dairy Farm Gates An on-the-ground investigation across seven cities meets locked gates, refusals to film, and orders over CCTV to delete footage. Owners and workers push visitors out, record them in return, and keep them from documenting conditions. Pressure and uncertainty over who might follow turn a simple plan into a risky pursuit.
Three-Foot Ropes and Lifelong Confinement Cows and buffaloes remain tethered day and night with ropes barely three feet long, rarely, if ever, allowed to roam. Space constraints have replaced village courtyards where animals once grazed freely, and immobility is offset with medicines for digestion and illness. Tight bindings leave marks and restlessness, turning basic care into a regimen of treatment instead of freedom.
Filth, Mastitis, and the Milk We Drink Some farms stand in months-old floodwater that reeks like open sewage, with slippery lanes soaked in urine and feces. Infrequent cleaning breeds infections, and mastitis affects about 45% of cows. Milking continues despite infection because stopping means loss, sending pathogens into the milk used for tea, coffee, and paneer.
Vanishing Calves and a Mother’s Loss Milk requires recent pregnancy, yet calves are scarce: many are sold off, left elsewhere, or die crushed in crowded transport trucks. Dead newborns lie on the floor while tied mothers are treated as if they do not grieve. The separation inflicts a sorrow words cannot capture, raising a stark ethical question about what is done for profit.
Forcing Milk: Needles, Restraints, and Deception Daily injections are used to trigger milk letdown, “heating” the body so intensely that a human dose would cause extreme heat and constant urination. Farmers often cannot or will not name the drug, only that milk flows within an hour and more shots follow if needed. Other tactics include tying legs while a calf briefly suckles before being pulled away so humans can take the milk. The most jarring method skins a dead calf to make a stuffed “packet” that mimics its smell, tricking the mother into releasing milk.
When Milk Ends, the Body Becomes Commodity A cow’s natural 20–25-year lifespan shrinks to 8–9 years as repeated pregnancies exhaust her; after 5–6 calves, she is sold off. Traders move “dry” animals onward, where meat is eaten and skins, horns, and bones become leather goods and combs. India’s status as top milk producer aligns with major beef exports, showing dairy and beef as two sides of the same coin. Farmers answer with resignation, saying livelihood and feed costs leave no option.
Cleaner Barns, Same System, and a Banned Hormone Some “conscious” farms show cleaner sheds, free movement, testing for antibiotics and urea, and no added preservatives. Yet calves are kept from mothers and cows are milked three times a day until the last drop, treating bodies as production units. Labs refused to analyze the seized injection, and research points to banned oxytocin widely used to force letdown, with residues passing to consumers. The cycle persists as long as demand does, and change lies in reducing dairy consumption and choosing plant-based alternatives.