Tristan–
I am a vet tech at a veterinary school that deals extensively with beef and dairy cattle (we even have our own dairy & meat processing), and I can assure you that cattle in the beef & dairy industries are definitely not treated this way in the US, or probably even in Europe & Australia (though I don’t know the laws there). Every single commercial slaughterhouse, whether it is slaughtering for beef or something else, is stricly regulated in the treatment of its animals. If you know of any individual slaughterhouses that do what you said (beating the animals, milking them to the point of collapse, etc.), you need to report them to the authorities. Any cattle slaughtered for beef (which includes veal) are usually killed as quickly and painlessly as possible (their are actually laws for this). While I don’t personally eat veal, because I just don’t like the idea of eating a calf, veal calves are not treated particularly cruelly, and none of the calves are shot or kept anemic. They are fed a nutritionally complete milk-replacer or grain diet.

Also, I’m fairly sure that live evisceration of any animal is illegal in the US, and I can assure you that any live fetus would die when its mother was humanely killed, not that a pregnant cow would be killed, anyway, as cattle are fairly valuable, and no farmer would go to the trouble of breeding his dairy cow just for the fetus to be killed along with the cow. As for beating and stressing out the cattle while they’re alive, nobody in his right mind would do this, because it would mean poor-quality meat and milk. In fact, farmers are trying to find better, less-stressful ways to keep and herd their cattle because it’s beneficial to them and the animals. And why would you waterboard a cow?

I’m not trying to make you angry or defensive or anything here. I encourage you to visit a slaughterhouse and take a tour. Keep an open, objective mind if you can. Education is the best tool for fighting something that you don’t believe in. Please don’t get sucked into rumors and propaganda–that’s really the reason for this website (The Beauty Brains). Actually, Wikipedia has a great article on veal production, if you want to read that.

If you don’t believe in eating meat and dairy or something like that, I just ask that you not bad-mouth the farmers who are trying to make a living and meet the demand of most consumers. I know a lot of farmers, whether they’re beef, dairy, grain, etc., and most of them are good, law-abiding people. Like I said, though, if you know of a particular slaughterhouse that is torturing its animals in the manner you mentioned, notify your local authorities, call your nearest veterinary school, or something like that.