ANIMAL AID
The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1AW
tel. (01732) 364546 fax. (01732) 366533
Spike Milligan, Carol Royle, Peter Singer.
Scientific consultant: Dr. Robert Sharpe MSc. PhD.
January 25th, 1995
"The veal trade starts with the daily pinta", is the message behind a nation-wide milk boycott launched next week by Cambridge animal rights groups, supported by the national organisation, Animal Aid.
Consumers across the country are being asked to Take the Pledge and give up drinking milk and other milk products for the week starting February 3.
"The 450,000 calves exported from the UK to continental veal crates are born as a direct result of the milk production industry," Dr. Martin Balluch of Animal Rights Cambridge tells consumers. "You hate the suffering, you want to help - this is how."
"But consumers need not go hungry or lack proper nutrition when they Take the Pledge," say the boycott organisers. "There are many delicious, soya-based alternatives to all products - milk, cheese and ice cream included."
The Milk Boycott is the initiative of Animal Rights Cambridge and Animal Aid Cambridge, and is supported by the national organisation, Animal Aid.
1. A cow, like any other mammal, cannot give milk unless she has offspring. And so her life is a constant cycle of pregnancies. To drink cow's milk (an unhealthy, unnatural product for humans to consume) is to contribute - however unintentionally - to the veal trade.
2. The exploitation of veal calves starts when they are wrenched from their mothers at a day or two old. Within a couple of weeks they are taken to market, a day that, typically, starts at 5am. They are then auctioned, early or mid-morning, before being loaded onto lorries for the Continent. In all this time they will have been denied liquids or food and will have suffered the din and rough handling of the auction room. So, even before the marathon drive to Europe begins, they will have been under stress for 10 hours or more.
3. The idea that milk is "essential" for healthy living is disproved by the hundreds of millions of people around the world who cannot properly digest it through lack of the necessary matabolite - notably, the Chinese. Alternative and better-quality sources of calcium are obtainable from green leafy vegetables, nuts, fruit, and, especially, sesame seeds.
More information and Pledge forms from Andrew Tyler (above telephone and address); or Joan Court, Animal Rights Cambridge, 74 Sturton Street, Cambridge CB1 2QA (tel. 01223 311828), or from Pat Griffin, Animal Aid Cambridge (tel. 01223 891054).