Krishna: Yes, meat and bone meal is sometimes used as cattle feed.
Slaughterhouse wastes and dead animals are used to prepare meat and bone meal. Slaughterhouse wastes consist of portions of animals that are not suitable for human consumption, such as carcass trimmings, condemned carcasses, condemned livers, inedible offal (lungs) and bones. Normally hair, hooves and blood are not included.
After animals have died their carcasses can be rendered to destroy disease organisms and made also into meat and bone meal. There can be a wide variation between plants and batches in what goes into the meat and bone meal that is being prepared. If the ash content is high, this indicates that it contains a higher amount of bones and is referred to as meat and bone meal. If the ash content is lower it is referred to as a meat meal. Typically when the phosphorus content is above 4.5 % P, then it is called meat and bone meal and when it is below that level it is referred to as meat meal or some other term (1).
Meat and bone meal can be a risk factor for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), when healthy animals consume tainted tissues from infected animals. People concerned about Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), which is also a spongiform encephalopathy, may favour grass-fed cattle for this reason. In the United States, this risk is relatively low as feeding of protein sources from any ruminant to another ruminant has been banned since 1997. The problem becomes more complicated as other feedstuffs containing animal by-products are still allowed to be fed to other non-ruminants (chickens, cats, dogs, horses, pigs, etc.). Therefore, at a feed mill mixing feed for pigs, for instance, there is still the possibility of cross-contamination of feed going to cattle. Since only a tiny amount of the contaminating prion begins the cascading brain disease, any amount of mixed feed could cause many animals to become infected (2).
Therefore, this meal is treated and sterilised to remove contamination (3). In some countries this meal is banned too.
For environmental reasons (2) some countries banned meat meal feed.
Another important thing to ponder is that animals are treated with antibiotics. This is increasing resistance. The growth hormones cows are given is a problem too.
Dietary recommendations promote choosing reduced- or low-fat milk products over full-fat varieties.
Milk is one important source of nutrition for children. They have to get their nutrition from other sources if they stop drinking milk.
When it comes to incorporating cow's milk, it’s important to consider the context. People don't just drink dairy milk alone. They drink milk instead of something, or with something. They eat cheese instead of something, with something. For example, while someone who replaces sugary drinks with milk might be making a healthy choice, another person who already has a balanced, nutrient-rich diet and adds milk to it may not experience any added benefit.
That’s why plant-based milks, much like dairy milk, are optional. Since dietary calcium can come from leafy greens, soy and other foods, how about consuming soy, cashew and badam (almond) milk?
Anyway it is a personal choice. If you don't feel like drinking animal milk, just supplement your nutritional requirements with other foods.
You also used the word 'disgusting'. This is said by people who don't understand the ways this universe works.
Do you know each and every atom in your body is a recycled one? Recycled from dead bodies of other animals, human beings, plants, rocks, dust , faeces and what not.
When this universe itself recycles everything and you borrow everything from this universe for a lifetime and after your death they will be taken by others, what is yours, what is mine and what is disgusting?
But then, the Q of veganism doesn't make any sense to me.
Okay tell me this : A person dies under a tree. His body decomposes. Some atoms of his body are absorbed by the tree and used in making leaves, flowers and fruits. Now if you consume the tree's leaves , fruits and flowers (like tamarind, coconut, mangoes etc.) aren't you consuming a human body indirectly? Aren't you offering the flowers, fruits and nuts made of human atoms to your deity? What type of logic is this? Everything in this universe is re-cycled. That includes human and animal faeces, urine, menstrual blood, dead bodies and all sorts of rubbish. You just can't escape consuming some of these no matter how much you hate it. You just can't escape universal justice and scientific rules.
Your body might have been made of 'disgusting atoms' from all those things I mentioned above. Now go to the bathroom and try to vomit all that you ate for breakfast! And don't eat anything, ever, if you really don't want to consume anything non-veg!
My mother told me when I refused to eat meat that I can't escape meat, nobody can. Even the most 'religious vegetarian' will have to consume some amount of non-veg in the form of small insects etc. in his or her food.
After studying science, I realized, nobody can escape recycled 'non-veg' atoms in their food!
Call it Universal rules or justice or whatever you want.
Digest that fact along with the food you eat.
If you don't want to drink commercial dairy milk, extracting a small amount of milk and dairy from backyard cows, goats and sheep without forced breeding is the most ethical option.
The choice is yours!
Footnotes:
1. https://www.feedipedia.org/node/222#:~:text=In%20areas%20where%20me....
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_feeding
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