Boycott Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) inducted milk

Source: The Human Farming Association

Cows Can’t Say No – But We Can - Four multi-national drug companies have invested more than half a billion dollars in the development & promotion of BGH. The battle over the use & labeling of this hormone has significance for all areas of animal agriculture. If BGH gains acceptance, it will pave the way for the use of genetically engineered growth stimulants for pigs, sheep, and other farm animals. BGH itself has already been used in experiments to produce larger, faster growing chickens.

The Humane Farming Association is working to make sure that BGH never becomes an industry standard. Here is what you can do help:

Boycott hormone treated milk. HFA supports the Pure Milk Campaign. We urge you to connect your grocery store & dairy product company directly to let them know that you will not buy any dairy product derived from BGH treated cows.

Educate your family & friends. Distribute copies of this brochure to inform others as to the hazard. BGH poses to consumers, family farms, & dairy cows. 

Support HFA. The Humane Farming Association is leading a national campaign to protect consumers from the misuse of agri-chemicals – and to protect farm animals from the cruelty inflicted upon them for the sake of agribusiness profit.  

BGH – Milk – It Does No Body Good - BGH – milk contains higher levels of a human growth promotant known as Insulin- like Growth Factor One, or IGF – 1. This hormone, which is identical in cows & people, is a suspected carcinogen. Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, an internationally-renowned toxicologist, warns that “all women from conception to death will now be exposed to an additional breast cancer risk due to milk from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone”.

Cancer is but one potential risk of consuming BGH-induced milk. Other risks result from the health problems that artificial BGH causes in cows. The FDA admits that BGH injections increase sickness & drug use in dairy cows. Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, reports that “because of increased udder infections, it is more likely that milk from treated cows will be of lower quality – containing more pus & bacteria – than milk from untreated cows”.

Milk from BGH-injected cows is more likely to contain dangerous residues of the more than 80 different drugs, many of them antibiotics, used to treat sick cows. From infancy to adulthood, people are dosed with antibiotic residues that contaminate baby formula, milk, cheese & other dairy products.

The FDA & the dairy industry claim that they test raw milk for drug contamination. But this testing is wholly inadequate. They only look for a few of the scores of drugs actually administered to dairy cows.

Furthermore, the FDA allows drug-contaminated milk to be sold as long as the residues are at a ‘safe’ level. These so-called ‘safe’ levels have been shown to cause increases in drug resistant strains of virulent diseases.

This alarms medical experts, such as Dr, Stuart Levy of Tufts University. Dr. Levy warns of the growing human health crisis posed by “antibiotic resistance”. As disease organisms are exposed to the antibiotics used on dairy cows & other farm animals, they become increasingly resistant to drug treatment.

Well over ten thousand people die in the U. S. each year due to antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. And the number of death is rising annually.

Animal Suffering - Though little has been done to measure BGH’s effects upon human health, pharmaceutical Companies have sponsored tests to measure the impact of hormone injections on cows. Even these tests – clearly biased in favor of BGH – indicate the dangers of its use.

Routine injection of BGH into a cow increases her level of stress. A cow may not metabolize food quickly enough to compensate for extra milk the hormone forces her to produce. This can throw her into what can be termed low-level shock. The cow remains in this condition for as long as the hormone is administered.

Cows injected with BGH may not be allowed to graze in pastures. Instead, they would be confined in small areas where their diet & movement would be tightly controlled. Rather than grazing on grass, BGH-treated cows must consume a highly-concentrated diet to keep up with increased production. This, in turn, can lead to higher rates of metabolic disease.

Industry tests also indicate that BGH may cause enlargement of internal organs, declines in the rate of pregnancy, increased intolerance to heat, & a dramatic increase in the amount of blood pumped through the animal’s heart.

Through reproductive technologies, the quantities of milk produced by cows has already increased dramatically. In extreme cases, cows must wear bra-like harnesses to support their engorged udders.

As a cow is made to produce greater quantities of milk, she is increasingly prone to mastitis in cows receiving BGH injections.

In 1930 the average cow produced 12 pounds of milk a day. By 1988 the average had risen to 39 pounds. If as proponents claim, BGH increases production by 20%, that volume could rise to 49 pounds a day per cow. This would lead to a corresponding increase in veterinary problems associated with intensive milk production. Please let us know how you can help and your thoughts at info@savecowsindia.org