Yes, it does! Many mistakenly assume that milk and dairy has nothing to do with cruelty and violence but the fact is far away from it.
<h1>To Start With, A Quick Overview on the Religious Status of Cows in India</h1>
<center>https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Kamdhenu.jpg</center>
In India, cow is considered a very sacred animal and is conferred a status of a Mother (Gau-mata) esp. by Hindus. Her milk is understood to be an elixir of life. Not just milk, in fact all parts of her body are told to be useful and beneficial for humans including her urine and dung.  So cows are the holiest of all animals and thus worshiped by most Indians …or such is the image they want to project of themselves. So everyone is encouraged to domesticate at least one cow in their houses and meet their dairy requirement from her. The activity of domesticating a cow, taking care of her with love & affection is termed as service to the cow called Gau-Sewa. These people are against the slaughter of cows and their progeny.  In fact, many people voluntarily keep a watch on all the vehicles passing by the highways all night just to check if any vehicle is transporting any cattle to a slaughterhouse. These people are known as Gau-rakshaks (cow-saviours). There is a section of people who are demanding to declare cow as the national animal of the country. 

<h1>But Is Domesticating And Milking a Cow in Her Best Interest?</h1>
<center>https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/12/01/16/24/cows-552946_960_720.jpg</center>
Whatever traditional rituals or scriptural references may imply but the harsh reality is that the very act of domesticating and milking a cow results in her slaughter. Apparently it looks to an onlooker that milking is a non-violent act and does not kill a cow because we don’t want to understand the indirect consequences of our own activities. Today, it’s no secret that dairy industry and slaughter industry are inter-dependent. One can’t survive without the other. Although the vegetarian community in India constantly raise their voice to put a ban on slaughter houses but they are not willing to do away with their dairy consumption. So the government is in a fix. You can’t keep producing cattle for dairy industry without operating slaughterhouses. But owing to public pressure, several state governments have put a ban or a restriction on cow slaughter. But this move has created different set of problems like increased no. of stray cows on streets, increased road accidents due to stray cows on roads, long distance smuggling of cows by inhumanely transporting them while escaping the eyes of self-proclaimed cow-saviours, animosity with and lynching of beef eaters by mob etc. 

<h1>What’s So Cruel About Dairy Industry?</h1>
<center>https://youtu.be/PaKq4wJizfY?t=4</center>
<center><sub>Please check this small video recorded in my city by my friend Dharmada last year </sub></center>
Today, most people are aware of cruelties involved in dairy industry. Prominent among these are artificially impregnating a cow every year (termed as rape by many animal rights' activists) to make her pregnant. (yes, without delivering a baby, no mammal can produce milk as milk is always produced for her baby!), slaughtering of male calves within a few months (as male calves can never produce milk for dairy industry and hence are a waste to them) to produce veal and calf-leather, slaughtering of a dry cow when she reaches the age of 5-8 years (natural span of her age is 20-25 years), separation of mother and baby (as baby will suckle up all her milk which dairy industry wants to steal to sell it to humans), administration of steroids & hormones like Oxytocin injections (to artificially increase the milk production), tying them in a small space all their life in unhygienic and unnatural conditions, serving them unnatural diet, branding them with hot iron, piercing ears and nose, de-horning, docking off tails, udder singeing etc. And all these are done for the sake of obtaining their milk which they naturally produce for their own babies.
<h1>But India Sources Most of Its Milk From Small Dairy Farms in Villages. They ain’t any cruel!</h1>
<center>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoDl8h5BoxM</center>
<center><sub>Here is a small video recorded by Dharmada & Manish at a small farm near Indore.</sub></center>
While talking about cruelties involved in dairy industry most people take solace that they derive their milk from a small dairy farmer thinking that they are very kind and no cruelty is inflicted there. 

Again, you got it wrong! This is the most widely prevalent impression in the minds of dairy consumers that their milk is free from any cruelty. I’ve personally interacted with several small village dairy farm owners, backyard farm owners, cow shelters known as Gaushalas etc. and I can tell you that none of them is free from cruelty. Artificial Insemination is very common in backyard farms and household cattle too. There is a general lack of professional veterinary care services. No one takes care of their male calves. But it’s a fact that 50% of a cow’s offspring are male. So either they are sold to some middleman for slaughter or are left on the streets to fend for themselves or sent to some gaushala from where they are sent to slaughterhouses. Whatever the case, the fate of all male calves is a life full of starvation and suffering and finally an untimely death or slaughter.

Most people fail to understand that cruelty and violence is inherent in domestication. No one has right to make any being captive and slave to serve their own selfish interest. Piercing nose and tying up with a rope to put them in check is not what they have got their life for. Although small dairyman don’t use automated machines to milk them but even touching your hands to someone’s private parts is an offense to their dignity. And you call her a mother! 
<h1>But How Milking Leads to Murder?</h1>
<center>https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/07/13/15/40/cows-1514761_960_720.jpg</center>
Well, India is one of the largest producer of dairy in the world. This is the reason that India is the largest exporter of beef in the world and also one of the largest exporter of leather. All these industry subsidizes each other and are mutually dependent. The Father of the White Revolution popularly known as The Milkman of India Mr. Verghese Kurien openly opposed the ban on slaughterhouses as he said it will adversely impact dairy farmers and the white revolution. When a cow becomes unproductive, the money from slaughterhouses helps in purchasing a new cow for small farmers.

Further, the total cattle count of our country is about 300 millions and that too is insufficient to meet our dairy demand. So we need to grow our cattle count along with the improved breed for producing more milk. But this is not possible as even today the nation is facing acute shortage of feed and fodder. According to Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI), India faces a green fodder shortage of 63.5 percent and the shortage of dry fodder is 23.5 percent. Land allotted for permanent pastures and forest graze lands has decreased from a high of 13.97 million hectares in 1960-61, to 10.45 million hectares in 2003-2004—a 25.19% decrease. In the same period, however, total livestock population went up by 44.10% to 485 million.

Thus we are already over stocked with more than double the total capacity. And this is the scenario when non-productive cattle are being regularly slaughtered. But if slaughtering is totally banned, we’ll need provision to feed all the cattle for their entire life of 25 years. And add to this the exponential rise in population as we need to produce at least the number of cattle we are slaughtering every year to keep up with the constant supply of dairy. But with the rise in population and increase in per capita consumption, demand for dairy products is sky-rocketing. So we'll need to produce, feed and slaughter more cattle than we currently are. If you calculate yourself, you will find that making a cow pregnant every year increases their population by ten folds in 5-6 years period, if we don’t slaughter any of them. Thus dairy production is just unsustainable if we don’t slaughter cattle. **Hence dairy leads to slaughter whether or not we consume any beef or leather.**

So people consuming dairy blaming beef consumers for the slaughter of cows are either ignorant or hypocrites. It’s very clear that if we put a blanket ban on beef consumption and leather production, even then we’ll need to slaughter cattle in order to produce dairy. 

Now can you say dairy is benign and doesn’t kill cows? 
<center><h3>Milk is Meat. 
Milk is Murder. 
Ditch Dairy, 
Embrace Compassion! </h3></center>

<sub>References: [1](http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/drought-of-fodder-52671), [2](http://www.livemint.com/Politics/h3oggKhW328iPTbzdO3jeK/Fodder-scarcity-may-affect-livestock-health.html), [3](http://tci.cornell.edu/blog/feed-and-fodder-scarcity-in-india-an-exploratory/)</sub>