Philly TV Station Pulls New PETA Ad That Shows Cruelty at Pennsylvania Dairy Farm

Viewers Complain After Seeing Footage of Cows Who Are Kicked, Shocked, and Forced to Stand in Their Own Waste on Land O'Lakes Supplier's Farm

For Immediate Release:
May 7, 2010

Contact:
Michael Lyubinsky  757-622-7382

Philadelphia -- Depicting the filthy, substandard conditions at a Pennsylvania dairy farm that supplies Land O'Lakes, PETA's new ad was supposed to air on WPHL-TV (My Network TV) every day this week. But after receiving several complaints in the first two days of the ad’s airing, the station abruptly pulled the ad from the remaining time slots. The footage in the ad comes from a recent undercover investigation that PETA launched after a whistleblower at the farm became concerned about conditions there and contacted the group.

"If the footage is too graphic to watch, then the abusive conditions on this and every other dairy factory farm are too severe to tolerate," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "The way to fight this cruelty is not to put it 'out of sight, out of mind' but to stop buying dairy products."

The TV ad shows sick, exhausted cows struggling to stand and walk through a massive buildup of their own waste. Dairy workers routinely force cows and calves to stand and walk by kicking them, giving them electric shocks, and jabbing them with small knives. Cows on factory farms suffer from painful udder infections and are milked despite being sick, leading to elevated pus counts in their milk. Sick and dying cows often linger for days without proper veterinary care.

Later this month, PETA will also debut a billboard in Philadelphia as part of a national campaign asking consumers to dump dairy products. The billboard will be up for four weeks beginning on May 24 and will be located at 5800-5802 Old York Rd., near the intersection of Old York Road, N. Broad Street, and W. Grange Avenue.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.