Animal gifting hunger relief organisations

Bóthar’s dairy cows have become life saving heroes in many parts of the world. Irish dairy cows will produce up to 20 times as much nutritious milk every day as the average local cow in Uganda, Malawi, and Cameroon.


Milk & cheese from the living gift of a cow instantly improves the diet of an impoverished family and also produces enough milk for them to sell and earn an income. Suddenly mothers and fathers are in a position to purchase food and medicine for their families. Over time they can even send their children to school!


Bóthar also engages in cross-breeding Irish bulls with local cows, producing an animal that gives approximately 25% of an Irish cow’s milk yield - still four times more productive than the local animal!

Zombienosh wrote: »

What about the food for the cow? the medication? etc.

Animal Aid first confronted the ‘Send A Cow’ phenomenon four years ago with a blizzard of press, radio and TV coverage triggered by an article I wrote for The Independent newspaper. The message remains the same. It is vastly more efficient to use available agricultural resources (land, labour, energy, water) to feed people directly rather than first passing nutrients through animals. It therefore follows that it is nonsensical to saddle already impoverished communities with a food production system that makes poor use of their available assets. The rich world can afford meat and dairy products only because of our surplus wealth and the financial cosseting of the livestock sector. Recent data show that the average British dairy farmer would make an annual loss of around £18,000 if not for a £32,000 public subsidy (leaving him/her with a £14,000 ‘surplus’).
Some donor agencies try to confront the inefficiencies and environmentally destructive impact of animal farming by setting up ‘zero-grazing’ regimes where goats, cows and other animals are permanently confined in sheds. But they still need water and food – and, in such cruel and deprived environments, can suffer high levels of disease, early infertility and premature death.
Which brings us to a central objection to the animal gift schemes that often gets lost in all the debate about production efficiencies and environmental impacts. Animals suffer deprivation, disease and neglect on farms run by full-bellied Westerners. The suffering they endure at the hands of people who haven’t the resources to properly feed them or lay on veterinary support is all too evident.