‘Don’t buy dairy farm milk from abused cows’

MANILA, Philippines — The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has asked the public not to patronize milk from dairy farms where cows experience forms of animal cruelty. 

In a statement issued earlier this month, the PETA renewed its call after receiving information that a dairy farm in Australia, which exports ice cream to one of the supermarket chains in the Philippines, reportedly inflicts systemic cruelty on the farm’s cows. 

The PETA said they have a video that “shows a worker violently bludgeoning a calf to death with a hammer, sick and lame animals left without needed veterinary treatment for days, and a live cow being dragged by the neck through the mud after repeated attempts to kill her with a bolt gun failed.”

“Cows on this typical farm suffered greatly and with no justification,” PETA’s Ashley Fruno said. 

“All calves born on dairy farms are treated cruelly. They’re torn away from their mothers and slaughtered. If we drink dairy milk, that’s what we’re supporting.” 

PETA said a cow’s natural lifespan is about 20 years, but cows used by the dairy industry are typically killed after about five years because their bodies wear out from constantly being pregnant or lactating.  

A dairy industry study found that by the time they are killed, nearly 50 percent of cows are lame because of standing on concrete flooring and filth in intensive confinement. 

 Cows’ bodies are often turned into soup, food for dogs and cats, or ground beef because they are too “spent” to be used for anything else, the animal rights group said.