Photo: Ahead of Cheese Festival, PETA Draws Attention to Deaths of Calves in Dairy Industry
For Immediate Release:
September 15, 2025
Contact:
Hannah Nelson 202-483-7382
Aimed at anyone who consumes dairy but timed to appear just before the Art of Cheese Festival, PETA is running disturbing ads on Madison buses that are thought-provoking and that challenge people to change their dietary habits. The message takes no prisoners, pointing an accusatory finger at anyone who supports the separation of mother cows from their calves and consumes the milk meant for those babies’ own nourishment, propping up such cruelty with every wedge of cheese they may purchase.
“Facts are sometimes hard to face, but the facts here are indisputable: dairy factory farming means misery and heartbreak for cows and their calves, who ultimately are all sent to slaughter,” says PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA has delicious dairy-free recipes to help everyone who cares about animals eat with a clean conscience.”
Mother cows, like mothers of all species, form instant bonds with their babies, but their beloved calves are taken away from them, often within hours after their birth. Cows are forcibly inseminated (raped) by workers who insert an arm all the way up the elbow into the restrained cow’s rectum and insert a metal rod into the cow’s vagina to deliver semen. Newborn males are usually slaughtered for veal, while female calves endure the same fate as their mothers until their bodies wear out and they’re sent down the ramp to their own slaughter just like their mothers before them.
Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their food-related carbon footprint, and slashes their risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity. PETA’s free vegan starter kit is filled with tips to help anyone looking to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
