longer exist, as US farmers have adopted the practice of raising veal in groups. Under natural conditions calves continue to suckle 3 to 6 times a day for up to 5 months. Veal crates prevented this social interaction. Furthermore, some calves were reared in crates with solid walls that prevented visual or tactile contact with their neighbours. It has been shown that calves will work for social contact with other calves. To maintain personal hygiene and help prevent disease, calves lick themselves to groom; cattle naturally lick all the parts of their body they can reach. However, tethering prevents calves from licking the hind parts of their body. Excessive licking of the forelegs (another abnormal behaviour) is common in stall and tether systems. In the US, young milk-fed veal calves may be raised in individual pens up to a maximum of ten weeks of age and are typically in visual and tactile contact with their neighbors. Milk-fed veal calves are never tethered, allowing them to easily groom themselves. Drug use United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations do not permit the use of hormones on veal calves for any reason. They do, however, permit the use of antibiotics in veal raising to treat or prevent disease. In 2004, the USDA expressed concern that the use of illegal drugs might be widespread in the veal industry. In 2004, a USDA official found a lump on a veal calf in a Wisconsin veal farm, which turned out to be an illegal hormone implant. In 2004, the USDA stated that "Penicillin is not used in calf raising: tetracycline has been approved, but is not widely used." Crate bans Europe In 1990, the British government banned transporting calves in close-confinement crates. Veal crates were banned across the European Union (EU) in January 2007. Veal calf production, as such, is not allowed in many northern European countries, such as in Finland. In Finland, giving feed, drink or other nutrition which is known to be dangerous to an animal which is being cared for is prohibited, as well as failing to give nutrients the lack of which is known to cause the animal to fall ill. The Finnish Animal Welfare Act of 1996 and the Finnish Animal Welfare Decree of 1996 provided general guidelines for the housing and care of animals, and effectively banned veal crates in Finland. Veal crates are not specifically banned in Switzerland,