Fair Oaks Admits The Ugly Truth: Sending Mothers and Young Calves To Slaughter

Yesterday we shared a post about Fair Oaks Farms not being transparent and failing to answer legitimate questions people were asking. To our surprise they did answer some of those questions and it reveals the dark truth behind their operations and the many thousands of mothers and young cows who die in their care or are sent to slaughter every year.
CRUELTY BY THE NUMBERS – An Unimaginable Number of Cows Killed
These numbers are estimates based on their answers. Here are some disturbing statistics.
Fair Oaks sends up to 18,000 male calves per year to be raised and killed at only 17-20 MONTHS old.
Fair Oaks said, “Our bull calves are sold to a farm where they are raised for beef, once they reach a weight of 1300lbs (17-20 months) they go to market.”
Their website reports that 80-100 babies are born there daily. That would be up to 36,000 births per year. Assuming half of them are males, that means they ship up to 18,000 baby calves off that will be slaughtered before they are even two years old. Cows can live natural lives up to 20 years.
Fair Oaks sends up to 6,000 mother cows per year to be killed at only 5-7 years old.
When asked at what age mother cows are sent to slaughter Fair Oaks said, “Our cows go to market at 5-7 years on average.” With 36,000 cows on the farm, that equates to around 6,000 mother cows killed per year simply because their milk production dropped to a level that is not profitable enough.
Fair Oaks euthanizes about 720 cows per year.
When asked “what percentage of mother cows are ‘downed’ or die on your farm?” Fair Oaks said, “We have a mortality rate of 3% and a euthanasia rate of 2%, which match with the industry standard.” We are unsure specifically what is counted in their mortality rate, but the 2% euthanasia rate equates to them killing 720 cows per year.
Every Glass Of Milk Contributes To Animal Cruelty
These are sad truths we have always known about the dairy industry but seeing Fair Oaks say it openly will hopefully get more people to think about ditching dairy and trying cruelty free plant-based milk products.
Sources
Wikipedia: Life Expectancy of Dairy Cows
Number of Cows at Fair Oaks from their own website
Life Expectancy of a Dairy Cow from Lindsay Furlito, Dairy Specialist
Fair Oaks’ Answers to Questions on Facebook on 8/8/19 (image below)
