Cow’s ‘Dump Dairy’ Plea to Kids: ‘Do I Look Like Your Mother?’
PETA Billboard Near San Francisco Elementary Schools Encourages Students to Leave Cow’s Milk for the Calves
For Immediate Release:
September 13, 2017
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
As children return to school this month, PETA has placed a billboard near San Francisco elementary schools that shows a female cow alongside the words “Do I Look Like Your Mother? Cow’s Milk Is for Calves. Dump Dairy. Go Vegan.” The ad, in response to San Francisco schools’ recent decision to remove chocolate milk from the lunch menu, reminds students that regardless of the amount of sugar in the milk, cow’s milk is for calves.
PETA’s billboard is located at the intersection of Lombard and Divisadero streets, facing north, and is close to several schools, including Sherman, Tenderloin Community, Redding, Spring Valley Science, Rosa Parks, and Gordon J. Lau.
“Cow’s milk represents a mother’s pain at having her calf torn away soon after birth on cruel dairy farms,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard is a reminder to growing girls and boys that nondairy milk can help them develop strong bodies and a strong sense of compassion.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that humans are the only species to drink milk beyond infancy and to consume the milk of another species. In today’s dairy industry, calves are taken away from their mothers within days or hours of birth so that their mothers’ milk can be consumed by humans instead. Cows’ sensitive horn tissue is often burned or gouged out of their heads without painkillers. Male calves are often shipped off to be caged and slaughtered for the veal industry, while female calves endure the same fate as their mothers: repeated artificial insemination in order to produce a steady supply of milk until their bodies give out and they’re sent to slaughter.
If school officials eliminated chocolate milk for health reasons, they should stop offering dairy milk altogether because it’s high in fat, cholesterol, and sugar. Studies have shown that skim milk has the same number of calories as soda, and cow’s milk has been linked to everything from cancer and heart disease to diabetes and strokes. Fortified soy milk, however, contains high levels of essential nutrients like calcium, vitamin D, protein, and vitamin B12, with none of the cholesterol, hormones, or cruelty of dairy “products.”
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
