Happy Cows? You Decide

California’s dairy cows are crammed into huge lots, where they live covered in mud and their own feces for most of their miserable lives. They are pumped full of drugs to keep them producing such unnatural amounts of milk that their udders often become swollen and infected—in fact, at any given time, roughly one-third of California’s cows suffer from painful udder infections, and more than half suffer from other painful infections and illnesses. They are forcefully impregnated every year to keep them producing milk, and their male babies often end up chained by their necks in veal crates before being slaughtered at just 16 weeks old.

More than a fourth of California’s dairy cows are slaughtered each year, generally because they’ve become crippled from painful foot infections or calcium depletion. At this point, they are trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes, many collapsing and arriving crippled. Slaughter is gruesome and often terrifying and painful. Said one former USDA slaughter inspector, “In the summertime, when it’s 90, 95 degrees, they’re transporting cattle from 1,200 to 1,500 miles away on a trailer, 40 to 45 head crammed in there, and some collapse from heat exhaustion. This past winter, we had minus-50-degree weather with the windchill. Can you imagine if you were in the back of a trailer that’s open, and the windchill factor is minus 50 degrees, and that trailer is going 50 to 60 miles an hour? The animals are urinating and defecating right in the trailers, and after a while, it’s going to freeze, and their hooves are right in it. If they go down—well, you can imagine lying in there for 10 hours on a trip.”

The one thing that the “Happy Cows” ads get right is that cows do have the same capacity for happiness as any dog or cat. In fact, cows are interesting and intelligent individuals who form complex social relationships, recognize one another, and enjoy an array of activities, including problem-solving. When describing the pleasure of a cow who has just overcome an intellectual challenge, researcher Cambridge University’s Dr. Donald Broom says, “The brainwaves showed their excitement; their heartbeat went up and some even jumped into the air. We called it their Eureka moment.”

While cows in the “Happy Cows” ads roam in grassy, idyllic pastures (left), California’s actual dairy cows typically stand in urine- and feces-saturated dirt and mud (right).

Cows in the “Happy Cows” ads are visions of good health (left), while California’s actual dairy cows often have uncomfortably distended udders and other painful maladies (right).

While calves in the “Happy Cows” ads share a field with their grandmother (left), many of California’s actual calves are confined to crates too small to allow them even to turn around (right). Sick, emaciated calves, such as the one pictured here (below right), are often abandoned and left to languish until they finally die.

While cows in the “Happy Cows” ads graze in sparsely populated, lush fields (left), California’s actual dairy cows are commonly fed in barren, dirt lots among hundreds or even thousands of others (right).

While cows in the “Happy Cows” ads lie on straw bedding inside the shelter of a barn (left), California’s actual dairy cows are routinely kept on dirt or mud (right).

How can the CMAB get away with lying to consumers? The CMAB is the marketing arm of the California Department of Agriculture, a government agency, and in California, remarkably, government agencies are exempt from false-advertising laws.

PETA Sues the California Milk Board for False Advertising

In December 2002, PETA filed a lawsuit against the state-supervised California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) for portraying idyllic conditions in its “Happy Cows” advertisements, in stark contrast to the actual conditions in which California’s dairy cows live. The CMAB ads carry the tagline “Great cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California” and depict cows enjoying acres of rolling, green pastures, raising their young, and engaging in other natural behaviors.

In fact, the state’s dairy cows typically live on extremely muddy, feces- and urine-soaked lots devoid of even a bush, a blade of grass, or any vegetation. The cows are repeatedly impregnated and are genetically and chemically manipulated to produce abnormally high quantities of milk. Their newborns are torn from them, and many of the males are relegated to dark, filthy veal crates. Dairy cows are worn out and prodded off to slaughter at just a fraction of their natural life expectancy.

While California has strict laws against false advertising, Judge David Garcia of the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, ruled that the government can’t be sued for violations of these laws, no matter how egregious such violations may be.

PETA Appeals to California’s First Appellate Court
California’s false-advertising laws are designed to protect consumers from being deceived, and deception is deception, whether carried out by the government or by private business. So PETA appealed to a higher court, arguing that making the government accountable for lying to the public is good for the people of California and good for the cows and calves whose suffering is hidden behind the CMAB’s deceitful campaign. Once again, the court ruled that it’s legal for the government to lie to consumers.

PETA Takes Its Case to the California Supreme Court
In a ruling that leaves cows and consumers unprotected from government misconduct, the California Supreme Court refused to review the Appellate Court ruling. With this action, the Supreme Court left standing the ruling that the state is exempt from its own false-advertising laws.