RE: Dairy Industry Abuses Animals and Misleads Consumers

As the dairy industry gears up for its summer advertising campaign to encourage the sale of dairy products, Farm Sanctuary is asking people to stop consuming cow's milk.  The non-profit organization says that dairy cows suffer inhumane treatment and that cows' milk is meant for calves, not people.

Farm Sanctuary is writing to celebrities who have participated in the dairy industry's "Milk Mustache" campaign, asking them to reevaluate their endorsement.  Academy Award nominated actor, James Cromwell, stated, "There is no reason why we cannot wean ourselves away from cows' milk.  We can make a more conscious, more compassionate choice.  In fact, given the
abundance of alternatives to cows' milk, to continue exploiting another species so cruelly, merely for the sake of profit and convenience, is an obscenity."

Also supporting this effort is internationally acclaimed artist, Sue Coe, who has created a work entitled "The Milk Mustache".  Depicting an actual farming practice, Coe shows a young calf wearing a spiked nose ring "mustache" which is used to prevent calves from nursing.  If the calf
attempts to suckle, the sharp spikes poke the cow's udder, causing pain and preventing nursing.

Operating animal sanctuaries in California and New York, the first and third largest dairy states respectively, Farm Sanctuary has documented extensive animal cruelty caused by dairies and rescued hundreds of cows and calves.

Modern dairy cows commonly produce ten times more milk than they would in nature, and their bodies are under constant stress.  Cows who could live 25 years in a healthy environment are typically slaughtered for ground beef after just 3 or 4 years in production.

Besides adult cows, millions of calves suffer at the hands of the dairy industry every year because cows, like other mammals, must give birth in order to produce milk.  Half of the calves born are female, and they are raised to replace worn out cows in the milking herd.  The other half are
male, and they are useless to dairy farmers.  Thousands are literally discarded, while others are confined in crates and used for veal.

The dairy industry, perhaps more than any other, has succeeded in selling an unnecessary, inhumane, and unhealthy products through clever advertising.  Dairy products are not 'a natural', and they are not good for 'every body'.