Cow's Milk Is for Baby Cows, Says Group
For Immediate Release:
September 19, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
Atlanta --Wearing cow costumes and holding signs that read, "I Am Not a Milk Machine" and "Cow's Milk Is for Baby Cows," members of PETA and Georgia Animal Rights Protection will protest outside the International Dairy Show in Atlanta on Tuesday. Their point? That cows on dairy factory farms are repeatedly impregnated to keep producing milk and that calves are traumatically torn away from their mothers within days or even hours of birth. Many male calves are shoved into tiny, filthy crates and fed iron-deficient diets for the cruel veal industry, and females are either forced into milk production or killed for the rennet in their stomachs, which is an ingredient in cheese.
When: Tuesday, September 20, 12 noon
Where: Outside the Georgia World Congress Center, southwest corner of the intersection of Marietta Street N.W. and Centennial Olympic Park Drive N.W., Atlanta
An industry study revealed that a high percentage of cows who are used for milk production are lame because of the filth and intensive confinement on factory farms and the strain of being constantly pregnant. Nearly half suffer from painful mastitis. Fed a steady diet of hormones and antibiotics, the cows become worn out after just a few pregnancies and are shipped off and slaughtered for fast-food burgers. Video footage obtained by PETA and taken by a whistleblower at a farm that supplies dairy giant Land O'Lakes shows sick, exhausted cows struggling to stand and being forced to hobble through massive piles of their own waste. Workers kick and jab the cows in an attempt to make them stand.
"The dairy industry's sales pitches are a whitewash," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "When you consider that cows are tormented into producing massive amounts of milk and that the consumption of dairy products has been linked to everything from heart disease to osteoporosis, it makes the industry's case for milk hard to swallow."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.