A cow does not need to be raped in order to produce Milk.
Moreover, cows are able to continue being milked for several years after giving birth to their calves. I know people within the Krishna Consciousness society both here and abroad that do not engage in any of the standard industry practices in milking cows and it's factually wrong and ill informed to proclaim they are partaking in animal cruelty by milking cows.
See Ahimsa farms
The only question morally speaking is whether the interaction is consensual. If a cow does not want to be milked or worked on a farm, it would object to this through it's behavior. Anyone that is not emotionally retarded is able to observe this and thus forcing the cow to engage in the said activity would then be immoral.
There is nothing inherently wrong however with having a symbiotic relationship with an animal where you both benefit and the interaction is consensual. In using their manure, in benefiting from working sheep dogs, snow dogs, using eggs from backyard chickens when their eggs would otherwise go to waste, or milking a cow once you remove the violence and ensure they are being looked after. To imply so has more to do with being in line with the dogmatic views of an ideology than to eliminate suffering.
Let's not forget that we are all complicit to varying degrees in our support of animal agriculture but the question is where one draws the line.
Being Vegan you are NOT removing yourself from all exploitation and violence, however are striving to do so.
This is evident in the taxation system which in most countries subsidizes the cost of meat and dairy and there are a plethora of other examples.
It may be humbling as a Vegan to bear in mind that there are branches within Vegetarianism e.g. Jainism and Fruitarianism that take the virtue of NonViolence/Ahimsa further than Veganism.
It would be just as valid for these groups to maintain that being a Vegan is hypocritical and is not going far enough. Moro-ever whereas obtaining animal bi-products often
requires violence to be perpetrated on these animals within the dairy and egg industry, it does NOT require one to do so.
This is evident in backyard-eggs, and farmers that treat their cows as family members, abstaining from industry standards like the rape of cows, separation of calves from their mothers
and the shipping of these cows to slaughter.
The 'current' definition of Veganism is rooted in Marxist ideas e.g. commodification and exploitation which are philosophically flawed. The original meaning of Vegan, coined originally from one of the readers of Donald Watson's newsletter, simply meant Non-Dairy, Non-Egg eating Vegetarians. The philosophy around Veganism was later codified by the Vegan Society and over several years morphed into the obfuscated definition we now have around abstaining from exploitation and commodification.
RE: #ToVeganOrNot - Explain Why You DO or DO NOT Eat Dead Animals & "Animal Products" (Comment Contest: 20+ STEEM in Prizes)