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How dairy robots are changing work for cows and farmers

(spectrum.ieee.org)
225 points DonHopkins | 1 comments | 15 Apr 25 22:26 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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decimalenough ◴[16 Apr 25 00:36 UTC] No.43700087[source]▶
Serious question: why would a dairy care about the cow's quality of life? The setup in the video looks far more expensive than what most dairies actually do, which is keeping cows tightly confined in stalls where they can't move at all.
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barbazoo ◴[16 Apr 25 01:05 UTC] No.43700259[source]▶
> why would a dairy care about the cow's quality of life?

There is no such "thing" as "a dairy" that would or wouldn't care about something. It's all people making decisions and why wouldn't we strive to reduce suffering of other animals?!

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decimalenough ◴[16 Apr 25 01:53 UTC] No.43700572[source]▶
Because reducing suffering would impact the bottom line? There's a whole slew of existing technology/practices (battery hens, debeaking, sow stalls, etc) that already prioritize profit over animal welfare.

Vegans also argue that the entire dairy industry, which necessarily requires keeping cows continually pregnant and separating them from their calves soon after birth, in itself creates immense suffering.

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jader201 ◴[16 Apr 25 02:11 UTC] No.43700697[source]▶
Maybe fewer vegans would be vegans if they knew that the farmers were prioritizing the wellbeing of the animals over their bottom line.

And as long as you still have a bottom line while reducing animal suffering, many farmers may be perfectly happy with that tradeoff.

They may see it as a win/win — they get to still run a business doing what they love, while caring for the animals they love.

And if they ultimately are more successful, maybe they reduce and/or “convert” the number of farmers that care less for their animals’ wellbeing.

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adrianN ◴[16 Apr 25 03:14 UTC] No.43701063[source]▶
Since farmers act in a fairly efficient market, unless animal wellfare somehow improves the bottom line, they will be outcompeted by people who do not care about the animals. That's why we need laws that enforce minimum standards.
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1. barbazoo ◴[16 Apr 25 17:04 UTC] No.43707744{4}[source]▶
Morally I don't think people have the right to place the bottom line above animal welfare so I wouldn't expect them to participate in that "game". I would expect them to pack up and say, nope, that's not how I will treat animals so this is not a business I want to be in. If the business is only feasible if you treat animals badly, then it shouldn't be a business in my opinion.