Anti-Dairy Advert Attacks Milk's 'Natural' Image

A controversial new billboard featuring a well-dressed businessman drinking milk straight from a cow began a seven-city tour of Britain this week.

Bearing the slogan 'Cut Out the Middle-Man. Milk - Still Think it's Natural?', the ad deliberately sets out to "turn stomachs as well as heads," says Viva! the vegetarian group behind it.

Viva! wants to highlight what it calls the "bizarre reality of milk consumption". The new ad - which will visit London, Coventry, Manchester, Leeds, Exeter, Cardiff and Bristol - is part of a wider anti-dairy campaign, which includes a shocking new report and video called The Darker Side of Dairy. The report highlights the physical stress and disease that many of Britain's two million dairy cows suffer. It also reveals "the gruesome fate" of unwanted male calves - every year, says Viva!, up to 200,000 are shot just hours after birth.

"Drinking milk isn't just cruel, it's unnatural," says Viva!'s senior campaigner, Toni Vernelli. "Cows produce milk to feed their babies, just like human mothers do. Our bizarre habit of drinking milk from different species not only deprives calves of their rightful food, but also leads to a myriad of human illnesses. Drinking cows' milk is no more natural than drinking badgers' or cats' milk."
Natural Products, October 2005

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