The actor speaks against the cruel practice of dehorning these animals

Apr 4, 2013 09:21 GMT  ·  By

Hollywood sweetheart Ryan Gosling has recently sent a letter to the National Milk Producers Federation in the United States. His message is pretty straightforward: the practice of dehorning cows is cruel, to say the least, and must be put an end to as soon as possible.

In case anyone was wondering, Ryan Gosling did not act alone when choosing to send this letter to the National Milk Producers Federation.

Quite the contrary: he was encouraged to do so by green-oriented group PETA, whose members have long argued that dairy farms torture cows by removing their horns while the animals are still at a very early age.

“Dehorning is one of the most painful things done to cows on dairy farms, whether it is by burning a calf with a searing hot iron or applying caustic paste to create a chemical burn that eats away at the animal's flesh,” Ryan Gosling wrote in his letter to Jerry Kozak, the current president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation.

“Workers use sharp tools—including saws, sharp wires, or gruesome guillotine dehorners, which may also cut into the surrounding skin—to cut the horns out of an animal's skull,” the actor went on to argue.

Needless to say, the practice of dehorning causes the animals to experience tremendous stress, more so given the fact that most of them are subjected to this procedure while they are still calves.

Because of this, both actor Ryan Gosling and PETA hope that Jerry Kozak will agree to give this letter due consideration, and try to implement new rules and regulations whose purpose would be that of phasing out dehorning.

“I respectfully urge the National Milk Producers Federation to take the lead in stopping this barbaric practice by requiring farmers to phase out dehorning by breeding for polled, or naturally hornless, cattle,” Ryan Gosling explained in this letter.

For the time being, it appears that Jerry Kozak has not responded to the organization's and the actor's plea.