Mercy For Animals is rolling out a provocative new anti-milk campaign in response to controversial and sexist PMS-themed ads by the milk industry, which were yanked last week 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, MFA 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.
The ad, endorsed by leading feminists, including Carol J. Adams, will run in the next issue of Ms. Magazine, the popular women’s rights journal that helped lead the charge to retire the misleading and offensive dairy industry ads.
Mimicking the style of the milk industry campaign, the anti-dairy 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 MFA website, MilkIsCruel.com.
MFA wants consumers to know that milk comes from exploited, abused and grieving mothers. Like humans, cows only produce milk when they are pregnant or nursing. 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.
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.
Luckily, conscientious consumers can get more than enough calcium and other nutrients from healthy, plant-based foods without all of the saturated fat, animal cruelty and dishonest marketing from the dairy industry. Visit ChooseVeg.com to learn more.
