Through Hell for Your Glass of Cow's Milk

This is the slogan of a new campaign image by PETA Switzerland, produced by the Zurich agency Brandertainment.

The image features vegan mother Anja Zeidler. With a milking machine attached to her breasts and otherwise covered only in straw, the influencer and activist cries out desperately for her newborn, which has just been torn away from her. The poster was intended to draw attention in Zurich to the suffering of cows in the dairy industry — however, the responsible image review panel deemed it too shocking and banned the campaign. The animal rights organisation strongly criticises the decision and is now publishing the image through other channels.

The dairy lobby frequently advertises with images of seemingly happy cows on green meadows, while the animals are mostly kept confined in barns and artificially inseminated against their will year after year. Their calves are then taken from them shortly after birth — a horrifying thought for any mother. The emotional image depicts a terrible scenario, but it reflects a sad reality — the only truly shocking thing is that the truth about the cruelties of the dairy industry should be censored. Consumers need to know what really lies behind these products.

Anja Zeidler

Suffering of cows in the dairyindustry

Just like human women, cows are typically pregnant for nine months. After giving birth, they «produce» Cows produce milk for about ten months in quantities that are economically viable for the respective farming operation. To keep the milk flow consistently high and thus profitable, they are forcibly artificially inseminated every year anew. Their calves are usually taken from them directly or shortly after birth and housed in so-called calf hutches – often both mother and calf cry out for each other for days on end. 

In these hutches, the young animals are usually given unnatural substitute feed. Male calves are frequently killed in the slaughterhouse after just a few months and sold as veal; or they are sold abroad for cheaper fattening, forcing them to endure agonising transport journeys. Female animals, on the other hand, are – just like their mothers – exploited for the industry. Once their bodies are worn out and their «milk yield» declines after around five years, they too are killed in the slaughterhouse – often with inadequate stunning. Their natural life expectancy is around 20 years.