Dairy Kills: Dead Calf Confronts Delhi Consumers in PETA India’s World Vegan Month Plea
“Because You Consume Dairy, Calves Die.” That’s the provocative sky-high message that’s just been erected in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and a special placement in Delhi – where the billboard space was generously sponsored by the Blessing Naila Foundation. Timed with World Vegan Month (November), this nationwide billboard campaign by PETA India sheds light on the suffering behind dairy milk production and urging viewers to leave mother cows and buffaloes and their calves in peace by going vegan. (Vegans are vegetarians who reject all animal-derived foods.)
In India, the beef industry is largely able to exist because the dairy sector supplies it with animals to kill. India is the second largest beef exporter in the world, and although the export of cow flesh is illegal, there have been reports of cow meat being mixed in with buffalo meat for exports. Today, cows and buffaloes used for dairy are increasingly being raised in a factory farm environment and artificially inseminated – that is, raped: a worker inserts an arm into the rectum, and a metal rod carrying bull semen is forced into the vagina.
In addition to sparing animals immense suffering, each person who goes vegan shrinks their food-related carbon footprint by up to 73% and reduces their risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.
Mother cows and buffaloes are devoted parents. In Uttara Kannada, one mother attempted to block the same bus every day for at least four years after it killed her calf in a traffic accident. She never tried to stop any other vehicles, and she continued this routine even after the driver changed the colour of the bus.
Choose Compassion, Choose Vegan