New Billboard Links Filthy Dairy Farms to Recent Massive Fish Kills

PETA Investigations Have Shown Cows Left to Suffer Amid Their Own Waste: Milk Drinkers Need to Think of Their Role

For Immediate Release:
September 17, 2014

Contact:
Alexis Sadoti 202-483-7382

Nearly 1 million fish have died in Iowa in recent weeks because of toxic manure spills from at least three dairy farms—the latest incident occurred just this week in Sioux County. That’s why PETA plans to place a new billboard in Sioux City that shows cows on a dairy farm caked and knee-deep in manure next to the words “Do You Know Where YOUR Milk Comes From? Think Before You Drink. Dump Dairy.”

The photograph used in the billboard comes from an investigationwhose details PETA released this summer, which revealed emaciated and lame cows forced to wade through their own liquified manure at a North Carolina dairy farm. It’s not the first dairy farm PETA has found where cows trudged through their own waste.

“PETA’s billboard reminds people that there are filthy farms where cows sometimes wade through fecal soup and where manure leaches into waterways and the ground and poisons the environment,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “It’s no wonder so many people are dumping dairy products and choosing soy and almond milks instead.”

PETA’s video shows that the farm’s waste pit had not been emptied for so long that the manure overflowed, with excess waste so high that the cows trekked through it up to their knees. It splattered onto their udders before they were milked and left animals—some of whom also suffered from emaciation and lameness—with skin ulcers and painful hoof ailments. Flies swarmed around the cows, who stood in the waste while eating. At night, the cows had no grass, straw, or bedding to lie on to escape the manure. PETA has found similar conditions on other dairy farms, including a Land O’Lakes supplier. The only way to prevent dairies from polluting the environment and making cows suffer in miserable conditions is to go vegan.

Eating dairy products—which are loaded with artery-clogging saturated animal fat and cholesterol—is also bad for your health. Cow’s milk is the number one source of allergies in children, and it has been linked to a variety of other health problems, including prostate and ovarian cancer.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.