Some interest groups tout June as National Dairy Month, but this year, a giant PETA billboard advocating for cows could help change that. Featuring an image of a cow mired in manure with a swollen udder, the sky-high appeal for animals sits atop Waldo Pizza in Kansas City, Missouri—where it may inspire some diners to opt for a vegan slice.

How PETA’s Ad Exposes Dairy Month as a Sham

PETA’s ad in Kansas City—in place from May 31 through June 26—has an anti-Dairy Month message:

Cows suffer. Their calves are stolen from them,
then they’re killed for meat. Ditch dairy. Go vegan.

Urging everyone to ditch dairy and spare cows a life of suffering, PETA offers free recipes, articles, and resources to show how easy it is to prepare vegan food at home or to find it in restaurants in the City of Fountains and many other places around the country.

Waldo Pizza—located at 7433 Broadway St.—has a vegan menu with plenty of animal-friendly “meat” and “cheese” options. PETA chose to place its ad above the restaurant to show everyone how easy it is to choose foods that are made from plants instead of the flesh or secretions of another species.

PETA’s new ad comes after the University of Copenhagen released a study detailing the dire conditions faced by cows in the dairy industry:

[T]he welfare is worse with cattle in the most common dairy production systems in opposition to cattle in the most common beef production systems.

PETA also posted the billboard in Charleston, West Virginia.

Why Ditching Bovine Milk for Dairy Month and Beyond Is Crucial

If speciesist humans were to choose to end their addiction to bovine mammary secretions, it would help do the following:

• Spare countless exploited cows and their calves
• Improve everyone’s health
• Give the environment a better chance amid the climate catastrophe

Why Cows Deserve Respect This Dairy Month

Cows are intelligent, gentle animals who mourn the deaths of those they love and sometimes shed tears over their loss. The mother-calf bond is particularly strong. There are countless reports of mother cows who, once separated from their calves, continue to call and search frantically for their babies, who are sold to veal or beef farms.

In the dairy industry, workers confine cows amid filth, tear calves away from their mothers within a day of birth, and steal the milk meant to nourish them so companies lacking compassion can sell it to humans. It’s standard industry practice to forcibly and artificially inseminate cows—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina—and to send them to an agonizing death in a slaughterhouse once their bodies wear out.

PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have found workers electroshocking cows in the face, hitting them with poles and a cane, and abusing them in other horrific ways.

How Drinking Cow’s Milk Harms Human Health and the Planet

Humans are the only animals who drink milk beyond the age of weaning and who knowingly consume the milk of another species. Consuming bovine mammary secretions can cause a host of health problems, including broken bones, prostate and ovarian cancer, lactose intolerance, and allergies.

Fortunately, the consumption of dairy milk has been declining for years as conscientious consumers turn to healthier and tastier vegan milks. Half of Americans now consume plant-based milks, and one-third of Americans drink them weekly. An estimated 65% of the world’s human population is lactose intolerant.

According to the United Nations, about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food production. The largest percentage of these gases comes from the dairy, meat, and egg industries. The horrific rate at which humans use cows for their mammary secretions—and their flesh for food and leather—is destroying the environment.

The most compassionate, effective, and immediate way to take action against the climate catastrophe is to go vegan. The increased demand for vegan milk from those concerned about the abuse of animals, their own health, and the environment makes this kind choice that much easier.

How You Can Help Cows During National Dairy Month and All Year Long

No animals should suffer so that speciesist humans can steal their babies and their milk. Do your part to leave cows in peace by ditching dairy and opting for delicious vegan milks, cheeses, and yogurts. Start by ordering free vegan starter kits for yourself and some friends: