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COMPLAINT SEEKING ACTION AGAINST THE CALIFORNIA MILK ADVISORY BOARD FOR DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING IN ITS "HAPPY COWS" ADVERTISEMENTS Submitted to: April 30, 2002
1. This is a complaint requesting that the Federal Trade Commission (Commission) take action against the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) for ongoing deceptive advertising practices in the false representations of the California dairy industry made in its "Happy Cows" advertisements. The theme of these advertisements is to portray spacious, grassy pastures on beautiful, rolling hills with a few cows grazing and wandering about and "enjoying" the ease, luxury, and contentment of life as a dairy cow in California. The tag line for each of the ads is "Great Cheese comes from Happy Cows. Happy Cows come from California." In reality, however, the vast majority of California’s dairy cows live anything but easy lives. They routinely spend their lives in "dry" lots of grassless dirt (which becomes and remains mud throughout some months of the year), far removed from the idyllic setting of the CMAB ads. They are repeatedly impregnated and milked throughout their pregnancies, their calves are taken away and turned into veal, they commonly suffer from painful maladies from their intensive rearing, and when their worn bodies can no longer meet the inordinately high production demands of the industry, they are slaughtered. While the complainant does not ask the Commission to rule on whether California cows are truly "happy," the nature of this complaint is that the conditions under which most California dairy cows are kept are so materially different (and worse) than those depicted in the ads as to render them unlawfully deceptive and, therefore, proper for Commission action.
2. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is an international nonprofit membership corporation organized under the laws of Virginia, where it is headquartered at 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510. PETA and its members are committed to ameliorating the suffering of animals and ensuring their humane treatment. PETA has conducted investigations into and campaigned extensively on the dairy industry and the miserable conditions under which the majority of dairy cows are kept. PETA maintains several Web sites with information about the welfare of cows and the dairy industry, including DumpDairy.com, GoVeg.com, CowsAreCool.com, and its main site, PETA.org. PETA files this complaint on its own behalf and on behalf of its members. 3. The CMAB, 400 Oyster Point Blvd. #214, South San Francisco, CA 94080, is an association that was formed to promote California dairy products and exists for, among other things, the profit of its members, California’s dairy farmers (as defined and specified in the Calif. Dept. of Food and Agriculture’s "Marketing Order for Research, Education, and Promotion of Market Milk and Dairy Products in California," Dec. 1, 1969). It is funded by its members through a special assessment based on milk production and is supervised by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Its activities are governed by a board of directors comprised of twenty-four dairy farmers.
4. Jurisdiction is appropriate in this matter pursuant to the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 41, et seq. The Commission has already determined that it has jurisdiction over the activities of the CMAB, specifically. See California Milk Producers Advisory Board, 94 F.T.C. 429 (1979). 5. The advertisements in question have been disseminated, and continue to be disseminated, in various states and in various mediums, including via television, radio, the Internet, print ads, and merchandise sales.
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