Please enjoy this article from the latest issue of our magazine, PETA Global. To begin your subscription, become a PETA member today!

We all know the phrase “mama bear,” but aren’t all mothers protective of their children? While working in his pasture, a New York farmer spotted a cow nursing a newborn calf hidden in the treeline. Since her previous babies had been taken away from her, she was trying to hide this one.

Forcibly separating calves from their loving mothers is a constant occurrence on dairy farms. Desperate mother cows have been filmed frantically chasing after the trucks that carry their babies away and mournfully lowing for days in abject grief.

That’s why the PETA Foundation’s innovative attorneys are seeking to upend such cruel practices. One part of that plan is a class-action lawsuit against US-based Organic Valley, which markets dairy around the world. The suit is on behalf of a California consumer who was duped into buying Organic Valley products because she believed the claims of the company (which, on some cartons, shows a silhouette of a mother cow and her calf) that it treats cows in a “humane” manner and “with love.” Treating cows like milk machines and spinning it as “love” is truly shameless.

Calves need to nurse. They also need the socialization that their mothers provide, like learning which foods are safe to eat and which herd members to avoid. But farmers remove the calves, who haven’t even been weaned, from their distraught mothers shortly after they’re born and take that milk for themselves so they can make money selling dairy products.

“As a mother myself, I can’t imagine a greater trauma than having my newborn taken from me,” says the lawsuit’s plaintiff.

Shun ‘Farm Fresh’ and ‘Free-Range’ Shams

Humanewashing includes claims like “cage-free,” “pasture-raised,” “humane,” and “ethical,” but these terms don’t mean what a reasonable consumer believes them to mean. The overwhelming majority of animal-derived foods marketed as “humane,” including those showing lush green fields on the packaging, come from farms in which huge numbers of animals are packed in as tightly as their meager standards allow to reduce costs, maximize output, and increase profits. Consumers who think they’re supporting small family farms would be in for a shock if they were to see what these places are really like. And animals from both “humane” and conventional brands often end up at the exact same place – an industrial slaughterhouse.

After PETA Foundation attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of consumers who were duped into buying Nellie’s Free Range Eggs, a federal court judge established that a marketing campaign showing hens frolicking outdoors – when, as alleged, they’re actually housed in filthy, cramped conditions that prevent many from ever going outside – can be misleading to consumers. Shoppers who had bought Nellie’s eggs and then watched PETA’s damning footage said that they felt “betrayed.” Since then, additional lawsuits have been filed against the company on behalf of other consumers who feel betrayed – embracing the same theories pioneered by PETA Foundation lawyers.

In another case, following PETA’s undercover investigation into Plainville Farms, authorities charged 12 former workers with 141 counts of cruelty to turkeys, the largest number of charges in any case involving factory-farmed animals in US history. PETA has submitted a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that Plainville is engaging in false advertising by claiming that turkeys are “humanely” raised in a “stress-free environment” even though workers have traumatized them by kicking and stomping on them.

PETA submitted another FTC complaint alleging that American Humane falsely and misleadingly claims that it has “set the gold standard in animal welfare” even though its standards for certification are not meaningfully any better than standard industry practices. American Humane has also given approval to the notorious turkey-slaughter company Butterball, where a PETA investigation previously revealed that workers stomped on birds, slammed them into walls, and tore off their limbs, and to Culver Duck Farm, where, according to a whistleblower, ducks were suffocated, buried alive, and gang-raped as a result of intense crowding and live ducklings were ground up while fully conscious.

Take Action Now

When you buy, they suffer and die. Replace milk and cheese with tasty vegan options, including Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter and Stokes artisanal vegan cheeses – and share them with our friends.