In the same way your mother stops lactating as you grow up, so do cows. Cows do not have to be milked, they're forcibly milked because they're forcibly impregnated. After their calf is born, they're immediately ripped away from their mothers. The cows are hooked up to milking machines, enslaved to produce milk for humans that was intended for their baby that was taken away. When they stop lactating, they're impregnated again. The same vicious cycle continues until the cows can no longer produce milk, and then they're killed. The dairy industry's advertising claims that their cows are "happy cows" is false advertising. Now there's a new commercial out aimed to attack the rise of dairy alternatives calling these products "artificial." Poppycock! What's more artificial than artificial insemination? Or the hormones and antibiotics fed to the cows due to their stressful conditions? Drinking cows milk is what's not normal. Being able to digest milk as an adult is one weird genetic adaptation. Somewhat less than 40% of people in the world retain the ability to digest lactose after childhood. Being able to digest milk is so strange that scientists say we shouldn't really call lactose intolerance a disease, because that presumes it's abnormal. Instead, they call it lactase persistence, indicating what's really weird is the ability to continue to drink milk. People who are lactose intolerant can't digest the main sugar —lactose— found in milk. In normal humans, the enzyme that does so —lactase— stops being produced when the person is between two and five years old. The undigested sugars end up in the colon, where they begin to ferment, producing gas that can cause cramping, bloating, nausea, flatulence and diarrhea. Why do you think there's is a HUGE industry for dairy digestive aids? It's so strange that something that's so bad for everyone continues to be marketed to the public as "nature's perfect food," when it's anything but. They only people who are benefiting off of milk, are the people who are banking off of it.