Dairy cows must be pregnant in order to give milk, and their female offspring either become dairy cows themselves or are slaughtered immediately. The male calves, however, are a byproduct.  Some are sold for beef, but most become veal.  The veal industry was actually developed as a result of these "extra" calves.1 (Learn more about dairy at our page here.) 

This veal calf will be killed after being chained to this crate for 4 to 6 months. (Photo: Farm Sanctuary)

Veal is the meat of calves who were taken from their mothers at only a few hours old, raised in intense confinement, and killed at four to six months of age. They are fed a liquid diet intentionally deficient in both iron and fibre; the resulting anemia makes their meat extremely white and tender.  To better restrict muscle development, veal calves are chained by their necks inside a two-foot wide crate for the entirety of their short lives. They are unable to turn around, stretch, or even lie down comfortably.2,3

Calves kept in these crates exhibit classic symptoms of stress and anxiety, such as head tossing and shaking, kicking, scratching, and stereotypical chewing behavior. 4 This last symptom is in part the result of having been separated from their mothers; as babies, the calves are driven to suckle and chew anything they can.  The company of other calves becomes even more necessary without the presence of a mother cow, but crates separate them and make socialization impossible.5,6

These veal calves are chained to their crates, unable to even turn around. (Photo: Farm Sanctuary)

 Restricting muscle development makes the calves' meat tender, and anemia makes it pale. Despite being ruminants, the animals are denied hay or grains; they also are not allowed bedding of straw or corncobs. 7 The iron- and fibre-deficient diet fed to veal calves results in extreme weakness, as well as diarrhea. Between 2.5% and 8.8% of them die or are culled due to illness before they reach slaughter.8 Veal calves also commonly develop ear, respiratory, and digestive infections; the latter two are leading causes of death. 9 Approximately 87% of them suffer ulcers.  

Veal calves sometimes present a challenge at slaughterhouses, which are built for larger animals.  Though some slaughterhouses have narrower chutes and smaller killing boxes to accommodate calves, the relentless speed of the killing line and the electrical systems moving the calves along means that many are still conscious when their throats are cut.   As one slaughterhouse worker explained:

In the morning the big holdup is the calves...To get done with them faster, we'd put eight or nine of them in the knocking box at a time. As soon as they start going in, you start shooting, the calves are jumping, they're all piling up on top of each other. You don't know which ones got shot and which ones didn't get shot at all, and you forget to do the bottom ones. They're hung anyway, and down the line they go, wriggling and yelling. The baby ones — two, three weeks old — I felt bad killing them so I just let them walk past.10

For more pictures of veal calves, click here.

1. 1. American Veterinary Association, Backgrounder: Welfare Implications of the Veal Calf Husbandry, 2008 Oct. 13
2. 2. ibid.
3. 3. Farm Sanctuary, Veal Production
4. 4. ibid.
5. 5. American Veterinary Association, Backgrounder: Welfare Implications of Veal Calf Husbandry, 2008 Oct. 13
6. 6. Chai Online, Veal Calves Factsheet
7. 7. Smith, John M., Ohio State University Fact Sheet: Raising Dairy Veal
8. 8. American Veterinary Association, Backgrounder: Welfare Implications of Veal Calf Husbandry, 2008 Oct. 13
9. 9. PubMed, The effect of low dose oral human interferon alpha therapy on diarrhea in veal calves., 1993
10. 10. Eisnitz, Gail, Slaughterhouse (New York, 1997), p. 43