A Jain's Dilemma In 1995, religion forced Pravin K. Shah to tour a Vermont dairy farm.
Shah is a Jain. Jainism gave the world the doctrine of ahimsa (harmlessness), the cornerstone of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence. For Jains, ahimsa means eating without killing – even plants, to some extent. But taking the milk of a cow, if kindly treated, is fine. Which is why Jains like Shah are having second thoughts. When Shah toured the mid-sized dairy farm in Vermont, he wanted to see if there was any kindness left in the milk he drank. He came away deeply disappointed.
"It was milking time (5:00 PM)," Shah reported, "and the machine was milking the cow at 3.5 minutes per cow, without regard to how hard it was on the cow. It was extremely difficult for me to watch. . . .The evening I was there, the farm was shipping three baby calves in a truck to a veal factory. The mother cows were crying when their babies were separated from them. I cannot forget the scene and can still hear the cries of the mother cows. . . ."
"Needless to say," Shah writes, "the dairy farm tour made me an instant vegan."
VERDICT: For people who aspire to make every act – even what they pour on their cereal – congruent with their moral values, the decision to drink milk is not just a health question. It's a matter of conscience.
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