Mum’s The Word: The Secret Weapons Animal Industries Use to Massacre Motherhood
Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the unbreakable bonds that form in the womb (or egg) and grow throughout our lives. It’s not just about brunch and blooms – it’s also a chance to show respect to mothers of all species.
Like us, other animals bond with their young through breastfeeding, lullabies, and play, fiercely protect and gently guide them, and want to see their children grow and learn.
But did you know that the food, fashion, entertainment and animal testing industries use secret weapons to massacre motherhood?
The Secret Weapon:
Giant Blenders In The Egg Industry
How It Hurts Mothers:
It’s no secret that the egg industry – even disingenuously named “free range” operations – confines hens to too-small spaces and forces them to lay too many eggs, leading to reproductive health issues.
But what about male chickens? They can’t lay eggs, so they’re killed. Some are gassed to death, but others are macerated, which sees them sent down a conveyor belt toward large metal blades which grind them up alive within days of hatching.
Mother hens cluck to their eggs before hatching. Imagine how they’d feel knowing their babies are being thrown in a blender.
The Secret Weapon:
The Handmaid’s Tale Playbook in Laboratories
How It Hurts Mothers:
Poor record-keeping and opaque reporting mean that Australia’s use of animals in experiments is shrouded in secrecy, but one thing we do know is this: almost every animal used in research ends up dead.
This means a constant flow of fresh animals is always needed, which requires huge breeding facilities full of mothers making babies – from puppies to macaques, rabbits, mice, and more – for use in invasive, painful, and deadly experiments.
Imagine having your babies poisoned in your womb or watching baby after baby be taken from you to be tortured and killed.
The Secret Weapon:
Forced Pregnancy In Greyhound Racing
How It Hurts Mothers:
Almost everyone melts at the sight of a mother dog and her wiggly puppies, but for female greyhounds in the racing industry, birth is far from joyous.
Up until the start of 2026, impregnating greyhounds was done via Surgical Artificial Insemination (SAI), where the pelvic wall is cut open to inject sperm directly into the uterine horns. While this is now illegal, greyhounds are still forcibly and artificially impregnated to make new dogs for the racing industry.
Imagine enduring a stressful, non-consensual impregnation, only to have your babies taken away and raced to death.
The Secret Weapon:
Nose Spikes In Dairy Operations
How It Hurts Mothers:
If you were shown the contraption below, you might think it was a piece of medieval torture equipment, but it’s actually modern torture equipment used on dairy farms all over Australia.
Like us, female cows carry their young for nine months and use nursing as a bonding exercise, but, for us to have their milk, calves are taken from their mothers within weeks of birth. In the meantime, contraptions like nose spikes are used to make nursing painful for mother and baby.
Imagine getting painfully spiked every time you tried to feed or bond with your newborn.
The Secret Weapon:
‘Wastage’ Write Offs in Horse Racing
How It Hurts Mothers:
Not every horse bred into racing is Phar Lap, and those deemed too slow can’t just hang around, costing trainers hay.
This is what’s referred to as “wastage” in racing – the many animals who are bred in the hope of being profitable but instead end up discarded like betting slips – killed for cheap meat, dumped on rescues, or shipped overseas.
Imagine living like Black Caviar, who was forced to birth nine foals in 11 years, a strain that ultimately killed her when her youngest foal was just hours old.
The Secret Weapon:
Cages To Isolate Babies For Bacon
How It Hurts Mothers:
Pigs are among the most sensitive, intelligent animals on the planet, and mother pigs among the most dedicated, but, for us to eat their flesh, they’re denied everything important to them – including raising their kids.
In piggeries, sows who are close to giving birth are housed in farrowing crates, small metal cages which are so restrictive that the mother pig can only take one step forward or backwards or lie on the concrete floor – there is no space for her to turn around.
Mother pigs sing softly to their babies while they nurse. Imagine only seeing the babies you love through bars before they’re taken away to be killed.
The Secret Weapon:
“The Cove” to Trap Dolphins For Seaquariums
How It Hurts Mothers:
While many dolphins used by marine parks, including those at Sea World on the Gold Coast, are born via forced captive breeding, many others are stolen from the wild.
Once the subject of a heartbreaking documentary, “The Cove” in Taiji, Japan, is an ocean dead end where dolphins are corralled by humans who hunt them. While some are slaughtered for their flesh, many are trapped and sold to marine parks, where they’re confined to tanks and forced to do tricks.
In their natural homes, dolphins stay with their mums for up to 10 years. Imagine how they feel having them snatched from a sea that’s red from the blood of their pod, and forced to perform tricks in tiny tanks.
Want to Defend Mothers and Babies?
Motherhood is sacred, and other animals are no different to us when it comes to building bonds, nurturing their young, and wanting to see their babies grow up.
If you want to help mothers and their babies, and believe family bonds matter, no matter the species, take our 30-day Vegan Challenge today, and help make Mother’s Day peaceful for all.
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