A provocative new anti-milk ad has being rolled out in response to controversial PMS-themed ads by the milk industry, which were yanked after drawing criticism from people nationwide. In a bid to set the record straight about the milk industry’s true relationship with the female reproductive system, the national animal protection group Mercy For Animals has created an edgy parody of the highly maligned and recently scrapped dairy industry PMS ad campaign. The clever ad exposes the dark side of milk production: egregious animal abuse.
Mimicking the style of the milk industry campaign, the anti-milk ad features an angry woman holding blood- splattered milk cartons, exclaiming, “PMS? No, I’m livid with the milk industry for abusing and killing cows. Most Cows in Dairy Production Are Painfully Mutilated, Intensively Confined, and Mercilessly Killed” and directing consumers to the newly launched website, MilkIsCruel.com.
The full-page ad is set to run in an upcoming issue of Ms. Magazine, the popular feminist journal that helped lead the charge to retire the misleading and offensive dairy industry ads (below;)
Cows produce milk for the same reason humans do, to nourish their young. In the dairy industry, cows are forcibly impregnated in what the industry refers to as a “rape rack” and then kept in a constant cycle of pregnancy and lactation. So that all of their milk can be sold for profit, baby calves are ripped from their mothers’ sides when they are only a few days old. “Surplus” calves, including almost all of the males, are shipped to slaughter or sold for veal production. Calves raised for veal are usually fed an artificial, iron-deficient milk replacement formula designed to induce borderline anemia and pale-colored flesh. Many calves are also chained by the necks in narrow wooden crates, unable to turn around or lie down comfortably for the duration of their short, miserable lives.
The constant cycle of pregnancy, birth and often artificially elevated milk production takes a huge toll on the cows’ bodies and most are considered “spent” at six years of age, when they are shipped to slaughter for low-grade hamburger meat. Cows would normally live 20-25 years. Worn out by the cruelties endured in milk production, many cows, called “downers,” are too sick or injured to walk to the kill floor. Workers often use forklifts and chains to push or drag these helpless animals to their deaths, tearing ligaments and breaking bones along the way.
“The extreme violence and abuse cows and calves face at the hands of the milk industry is truly unconscionable,” says Mercy For Animals’ Executive Director Nathan Runkle. “Conscientious consumers can get more than enough calcium and other nutrients from healthy, vegetarian foods without all of the saturated fat, animal cruelty and dishonest marketing from the dairy industry.”
For more information, visit www.MilkIsCruel.com.