It's a very good question and even more puzzling when considering that a large portion of major digestion issues adults in Western countries experience on a regular basis are due to lactose intolerance: adult humans are clearly not designed to digest any kind of milk, we simply do not have the enzymes after childhood. There are several reasons for the prevalence of milk and dairy products in our general nutrition. For one, as humans began domesticating 'food' animals such as cows and goats, drinking their milk turned out to be a very efficient way of feeding off animals without killing them. Surely a big component of human development into who we are today is that unlike most animals, we do not spend most of our days procuring food, since we learned to generate and store food near our homes. So there is clear a historical root.
Why then the massive consumption of dairy today, where we are not as relying on milk from the 'family cow'? Well, on the one hand, milk is sweet, it's versatile (think of the myriad ways to use milk in cheese, cream, yoghurt etc), and we are, at least in Western countries, culturally addicted to dairy. Many other cultures have much less use for milk, such as people in Asia and Africa or where cows are not prevalent (nobody for example drinks elephant milk, do they?).
Another big driver of milk consumption is... the dairy industry. Ever seen the "Got Milk?" campaign? One of the most successful and longest running marketing campaigns ever, dairy producers have for years put profits aside to fund promotion of milk as a major source of calcium (it is... but not as much as other foods) and nutritional benefits. Think of the milk man, a glass of milk a day and free milk for schools. It's, not unreasonably, a heavily promoted beverage when we grew up and so we get stuck with it, even though as adults, like all mammals, we have a much harder time making milk work.
Personally, I've pretty much cut milk from my life and feel much healthier.

AnthonyCourville: 2 years ago

Wow you are the only one who had the right answer!! Good job!

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It is because we are human. We are able to extract and process milk from other mammals. It's not possible for other mammals to take milk from one another. Plus there is a limited amount of time milk is produced in mammals. The anterior pituitary (adenohypophysis) secretes a hormone called prolactin, which causes the production and storage of milk in the breasts. It is then released from the breast by the hormone oxytocin from the posterior pituitary (neurohypophysis). But this only last for so long after child birth. So to continually gain from the benefits of drinking milk, we take the milk from other impregnated mammals, because we can and other mammals can't due to lack of skill and intelligence.

Stacks of other animals will drink milk if its available, just as we do - because its available, and it tastes good.

AnthonyCourville: 2 years ago

Like if we give a bowel of milk to a cat right..

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Well part of the reason that we as humans still drink milk after infancy is because we are not considered grown up until years after we are born and need that milk to grow strong and build and strengthen bones. However, most animals are considered grown after about one year of age. We also are able to take milk from cows or other animals and process it to drink where animals can't do that with other animals so they have to drink what is available to them which is water.

There is no age limit on drinking milk.
If other animals could go to the store and purchase a gallon then they probably would continue to drink milk.

Other animals don't drive cars or wear clothes either!

If there was a lake full of milk like there is water, then they would probably drink there also!

Plus, animals don't eat cereal!

AnthonyCourville: 2 years ago

Too funny!!

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well for one we are human and way more advanced then animals and we do stop drinking milk in the same way cows do its called nursing the animal gets old enough to handle real food its the same way with humans the mom breast feeds untill the baby can handle its on food

because humans are a bunch of annoying babes