Cows Confined Indoors 24/7 for ‘Clean’ Energy: PETA Demands End to Deceptive ‘Humane’ Claims
For Immediate Release:
December 17, 2024
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Today, PETA’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that Oakridge Dairy—the largest dairy in Connecticut—stop deceiving customers with false claims that it sells milk from “happy cows.” The letter follows a new video investigation, prompted by a whistleblower tip, revealing suffering cows constantly confined on concrete so that their manure can be tossed into a “methane digester” for a bogus “clean energy” scheme.
Oakridge confines approximately 2,600 cows inside a concrete-floored mega-shed, where PETA eyewitnesses documented cows with swollen joints and apparent pressure sores on their legs. Workers admitted that the animals are never allowed outdoors and that the feces left over from the methane digester is used as their only “bedding.” Video footage reveals that cows are kept in extremely crowded conditions and appear unable to move around freely or find a comfortable spot to stand or lie down, all in stark contrast to Oakridge’s claims that they enjoy “plenty of elbow room” and are provided with “posh living quarters … ensuring maximum comfort.” Cows, like all mothers, produce milk to feed their babies—but Oakridge takes the calves away from their mothers within 20 minutes of birth so that the milk meant to nourish them can be sold through delivery service The Modern Milkman and distributed through Dairy Farmers of America, which supplies dairy brands nationwide.
“Oakridge Dairy is duping well-intentioned consumers with bogus welfare claims about the cows it confines for life inside a miserable concrete-floored warehouse for a green-washed pat on the back,” says PETA Vice President of Legal Advocacy Daniel Paden. “The only humane milk is vegan, and PETA is calling for Oakridge to end its deceptive marketing scheme.”
Cows have friends and mourn when a loved one dies or when they’re separated from each other. Cows used by the dairy industry are forcibly inseminated (raped) repeatedly to ensure a steady supply of milk, which a cow produces only after she gives birth. Once cows’ bodies wear out after repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.
PETA notes that methane digesters can’t capture the massive amounts of nitrous oxide and ammonia produced by cows—and don’t come close to capturing all the methane gas—all of which poison the water, air, and soil. Dairy operations looking to make an extra buck off “clean” energy may breed more cows to increase their manure supply, producing more greenhouse gases and risking even bigger spills like the 2022 leak of more than 376,000 gallons of liquefied manure from a dairy operation in Iowa. The climate-friendly solution is less dairy production—and more vegan milks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—points out thatEvery Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
