Dear Tesco,
We have just become aware of labels next to the cow’s milk in the dairy sections of your UK stores. They state that “Every pint helps care for dairy cows".
On the contrary, every pint of milk contributes to the pain and suffering of dairy cows. To imply that milking cows helps them is just plain wrong: the milk industry is one of the cruellest and most exploitative in farming. At best these labels are misleading; at worst they are morally unacceptable and deeply offensive.
In order to keep producing milk for humans, dairy cows are consistently made pregnant. This is done forcibly, typically through artificial insemination. Calves are generally taken away from their mothers within 24 hours of birth, causing immense distress for both mother and calf. Both usually cry out for each other as they are separated.
Males, who are of little use to the dairy industry, are either killed shortly after birth or sent away to be reared for veal, while females follow the fate of their mothers – milked continually throughout their lives, producing 10 times the amount of milk they would naturally.
They are milked to such an extent they often become ill and contract painful udder infections like mastitis. They only live to a quarter of their life expectancy before their body gives up, they are considered ‘spent’ and then slaughtered.
These awful acts are unfortunately the standard, everyday practices of the UK dairy industry; the facts the industry tries to keep behind closed doors, conveniently out of sight. Through these labels you are masking the truth from your customers in order to sell more milk.
Stop selling a lie. Cows do not need milking and farmers are not doing them a favour. This campaign has understandably outraged thousands of your customers, who have taken to social media to express their disgust. Some are now boycotting the supermarket until the labels are taken down.
We request that you immediately either remove every one of these labels from shop floors or move them next to the plant-based milks, which really do help cows. Otherwise we will have little alternative but to register a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority.
Yours faithfully,
