Male calves born to dairy cows are economically valueless to dairy producers and are often killed at birth or sold under poor welfare conditions.
Dairy bull calves represent a systematic welfare problem inherent to the dairy industry model. Being killed at birth avoids suffering from poor welfare veal systems, but the scale of the killing reflects fundamental structural problems. Better welfare options including higher-welfare rose veal, sexed semen, and breed-switching reduce the problem but do not eliminate it.