The veal calf industry is originated from the inseparably linked dairy industry.
Like every other mammal, cows must be impregnated and give birth before they produce milk.
The newborn heifers are forced to replace older cows in the milking herd. The other half of the newborns are males, and so are of no use to the dairy industry. Therefore the male calves are torn away from their mothers, usually only a few hours after they are born, and are loaded onto trucks, transporting them to flesh production farms.
A separation between a mother and her baby is always a trauma. It is well known that there is a particularly strong bond between a cow and her calf. They cry and bellow for hours in agony over their loss. This traumatic split is only the beginning of the misery the hours old calves experience.

The "Less Fortunate"

Some calves are murdered in the first days of their lives for humans who like to eat very mild flesh. These calves are the “lucky” ones.
Every year, millions of "less fortunate" calves are torn away from their mothers shortly after birth and transported to special fattening farms where they are confined in tiny solitary cells which isolate them from the other calves and barely allow them to move. These calves are fed with a milk substitute intentionally lacking in iron and other essential nutrients, designed to cause anemia. Anemia combined with a complete lack of exercise, creates pale tender pinkish-white meat, which is the desired finished "product".

Isolation

Since 2007’s EU welfare regulation, calves reared in EU countries are moved into group housing after 8 weeks of isolation. Calves in the veal industry are usually murdered at the age of 16 weeks, so the reform is not really an isolation outlaw but mitigation by half.
In the rest of the world the calves are directly or indirectly isolated for their entire lives. The direct isolation is done by confining the calves in individual wooden crates barely bigger than their own bodies, and the indirect isolation is done by confining them in wooden slatted floor barns, with or without partitions between them, where the calves are chained by the neck making it impossible for them to turn around, stretch or sometimes even lie down. They feel that there are other calves near them but they can’t really socialize or even look at them.
Both methods are restraining devices designed to prevent any movement in order to totally atrophy the calves' muscles, thus producing tender "gourmet" white veal. In both, it is impossible for the poor calves to find even one comfortable position.

Diseases

Denied all basic needs, calves raised for veal suffer from various physical maladies such as abnormal gut development, physical discomfort, impaired motion, and greater susceptibility to disease.
The combination of the milk substitute they receive and the high levels of stress, cause lesions which develop into stomach ulcers. Ulceration of the abomasum is very common among the calves as well as constant diarrhea and in many cases chronic pneumonia.

The floor in all the imprisonment methods is slatted to allow urine and feces to fall through. No straw or other bedding is provided due to the fear that the calves may eat the straw, which would make their flesh darker and tougher.

The calves experience leg and joint disorders, because they never exercise their muscles in the restrictive enclosures. Their bodies are sore from rubbing against the sides of their crates and/or from lying on the hard flooring without any bedding in the group housing.

Group Housing

Grooming is a very important natural act that keeps calves clean and hygienic. Except in the very early age of the calves, the very small crates prevent them from grooming themselves. In group housing the claves can groom themselves, but as a result of the sucking instinct which is totally unfulfilled, they tend to over groom themselves and so they often swallow a lot of fur. In the slaughterhouse, massive hairballs are found in many calves’ stomachs. These balls, which are often as large as a tennis ball, can cause serious health problems.

Anemia

Craving for iron, the anemic calves lick the urine-saturated slats and any metallic parts of their stalls. Besides highly restricting their movement the neck chains also prevent them from turning around and licking their own urine, which contains trace amounts of iron that the anemic calves long for.

Mental Diseases

Cattle are gregarious herd animals whose primary food in the wild is obtained by grazing. Like other animals, claves need wholesome food and exercise to be healthy. Confining them and preventing them from consuming a natural diet and grazing, results in significant psychological and developmental disorders including stress, boredom, and abnormal coping behaviors associated with frustration such as head tossing, air licking, head shaking, kicking, scratching, and stereotypical chewing behavior.
Some calves perform tongue-playing behavior which may reflect a state of stress from being denied the opportunity to pluck grass.

If you have ever seen veal calves, you know how frightened and stressed they are when someone approaches them. They are the most terrified creatures on earth.

EU Directive

Many activists’ hopes that the industry would be outlawed, at least in Europe, were shattered by the EU directive which not only didn’t order to close down the industry but even its best part, that the wooden crates must be banned by 2007, is for calves over eight weeks old only. Since veal calves are murdered at around 16 weeks old, they are still isolated for half of their lives under the directive. So even the veal crates were not phased out, only that now they have an age limit.

One of the horrible results of the EU directive is that for economic reasons some farmers preferred to close down their farms than readapt them, and that caused dairy farmers to send their unusable male calves for long journeys across Europe to other veal farms.

Another horrible result is that, while we were sure at first that the industry won’t even phase out of Europe but would move to non-EU countries and this product of cruelty would be then exported to EU countries, since only the use of wooden crates is banned and not veal production and not even the use of solitary cages which are legal from day one until the age of 8 weeks, the industry grew since the ban. Even in the UK which allegedly banned (actually reformed) white veal production in 1990 as a result of public opposition, now that it is "humane", the brits returned to consuming veal. After all it is totally fine to separate a day old calf from his mom and lock him with several more terrified calves in a small filthy area and feed him with milk replacer to the point of severe anemia. The only problem was the wooden crates.

To the Slaughterhouse

By the time humans decide it is time to murder the calves, they are so weak that they can’t walk to the lorry. Many calves die during the journey to the slaughterhouse. These are usually long rides in crowded trucks, in roasting hot or sub-freezing weather.

In the Slaughterhouse

In the slaughterhouse, the calves are yelled at, kicked and dragged. Frightened and panicked, they seek a way out, but the workers surround them. They already know that humans are not a source for compassion.

The calves hear their fellow calves screaming screams of horror and they smell their blood.

Due to physiological differences, it can take more time for calves than for adults to bleed to death, therefore the formal procedures in slaughterhouses may result in even more pain for these young animals. For some, this brutal slaughter is not the end since many are being skinned and dismembered while fully conscious.

Every year More than 6 million calves are going through this living hell.

The veal calf industry is one of the severest symptoms of humans’ super selfish and apathetic character.
To get the most tender texture of meat humans are tearing babies from their mothers hours after they are born, isolate them in a tiny box and feed them with a milk replacer so they won’t gain muscles and their flesh would be the softest possible in their mouths.

For how long would you fight the symptoms of the problem?
And what does it take for you to start fighting the core problem which is not a particular way humans torture nonhumans so they can enjoy their flesh, but everything humans are doing everywhere all of the time.