Water Buffaloes Tied to Poles and Beaten for Mozzarella Cheese

Buffalo mozzarella comes at a high price – and more than what customers pay at checkout.

This footage will make you swear off cheese for good, if you haven’t already.

Milk Comes From Mothers

Like every other mammal, buffaloes produce milk only after giving birth. An investigator on a farm in Australia saw frightened calves who were torn away from their mothers and caged in filthy conditions.

In the milking parlor and the area around it, mother buffaloes were shoved, punched, and hit with poles, and they couldn’t escape from this abuse because their legs had been tied to poles.

Because of its higher butter fat content, buffalo milk is often used to make rich cheeses—mainly mozzarella but also bocconcini, ricotta, feta, and haloumi—and the animals it was stolen from pay a high price.

Live Export

Most Australian states now have buffalo dairy farming, with a national herd of more than 700,000. Other buffaloes are raised and killed for their flesh, hides, and horns.

Buffaloes are also exported from Australia to Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam as part of Australia’s horrendously cruel live-export industry, and others are killed before their flesh is exported.

No Matter the Animal It Comes From, Dairy Is Cruel

Whether derived from cows, goats, camels, buffaloes, or any other animal, dairy “products” come from mothers whose babies were stolen from them. Thankfully, there’s no need to support this cruelty. Plant-based milk, cheese, and ice cream options are constantly expanding, and farmers can turn a profit by growing soybeans, almonds, oats, coconuts, peas, macadamias, cashews, rice, and more.