Milking It for All It’s Worth

Unpalatable Practices, Dairy Cows and Veterinary Work

Bibliographic Data

ID8090137
AuthorsCaroline Clarke (0000-0001-5737-2946, corresponding author), David Knights (0000-0003-0072-0393)
Year2021
Volume176
Issue4
Pages673-688
Publication date2021-01-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Business Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0167-4544 • E-ISSN: 1573-0697
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s10551-020-04666-3
OpenAlexW3120710875
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited42

Viewing animals as a disposable resource is by no means novel, but does milking the cow for all its worth now represent a previously unimaginable level of exploitation? New technology has intensified milk production fourfold over the last 50 years, rendering the cow vulnerable to various and frequent clinical interventions deemed necessary to meet the demands for dairy products. A major question is whether or not the veterinary code of practice fits, or is in ethical tension, with the administration of ‘efficient’ techniques, such as artificial insemination, to enhance reproduction levels among cattle? Vets perform these interventions and their ‘success’ is measured by the maximisation of milk production, requiring perpetually pregnant cows. Our empirical research on 33 farm vets explores how their professional ethical code promising to protect the welfare of the animal ‘above all else’, is increasingly in conflict with, and subordinate to, the financial demands of clients. Since vets cannot stand outside of the productive power–knowledge relations that have intensified the consumption of animal bodily parts and secretions, we argue that a process of adiaphorization’ (Bauman and Lyon, Liquid surveillance, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2013, p. 8) occurs, whereby humans become morally indifferent to cruel practices deemed necessary to our consumerist ways of life. However, this indifference reflects and reinforces a taken-for-granted anthropocentrism among vets, animal owners and the population generally. We suggest that posthumanist ideas may offer new insights for the study of human–animal relations in organisations that transcend the coercive and negative impact of discourses that deny any alternative to prevailing farm/veterinary practices. Our study has major implications in relation to climate warming and zoonotic diseases, both partly derived from our unethical relationship to animals, that are increasingly threatening our, and their, lives

Animal ethics · Animal science · Animal welfare · Anthropocentrism · Biology · Business · Milking · Political science · Population · Psychological intervention · Public relations · Sociology · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Medicine · Nursing · Law

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