Save the (Land) Whales—PETA Urges Local Subway Riders to Protect Cows

For Immediate Release:
August 24, 2023

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

A national messaging blitz from PETA is coming ashore at subway stations near the waterfront asking people to think of the mother-infant bond between cows on dairy farms in the same way as when they ooh and aah over whales and their calves in Boston Harbor, pointing out that the two animals are the same in all the ways that matter. Both are mammals who nurse their young, interact in socially complex ways, and mourn when they’re separated from their babies, which is what happens on dairy farms so that the milk meant for those babies can be sold and made into yogurt and cheese.

Cows are basically land whales, but instead of being allowed to explore, play, or raise families, they suffer daily on farms. In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their mothers within a day of birth so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. It’s standard industry practice to forcibly and artificially inseminate cows—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina—and to send them to slaughter once their bodies wear out.

“A cow produces milk for her baby, just as a whale does for her own calf or a human does for her infant,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on everyone to show compassion to mothers of all species by choosing only vegan milks made from soy, oats, almonds, or other plants.”

In addition to breaking up families and causing grieving mothers to cry out for days, the dairy industry is a major contributor to the climate catastrophe. In the U.S., emissions from cows are the primary source of the greenhouse gas methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere.

The ad is featured on dozens of liveboards at the Haymarket and Government Center stations, just minutes away from local whale-watching cruise departure sites. It will also run in Atlanta; Atlantic City; Baltimore; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and New Bedford, Massachusetts.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.