DawnWatch: "Happy Cows" ads stay as govt is immune from false advertising laws

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued the milk board. An article in the Wednesday, January 12, San Francisco Chronicle (Pg C2) tells us, "The ads, funded by dairy farms, were misleading, Peta argued, because California dairy cows commonly spend their lives in dirt and mud, are repeatedly impregnated and milked throughout their pregnancies, often suffer painful maladies, and are slaughtered when they can no longer meet the industry's production demands. A court may not be able to tell whether cows are truly happy, the organization said, but it should decide whether consumers are being led down the primrose path."

Sadly, that article, headed, "Dairy farms can keep milking their 'Happy Cows' campaign," tells us:

"An animal-rights group's suit against a state milk board for its 'Happy Cows' advertising campaign was put out to pasture Tuesday by a state appeals court, which said state agencies can't be sued for false advertising....

"San Francisco Superior Court Judge David Garcia dismissed the suit, saying the false-advertising and unfair-competition laws invoked by Peta can be used only against individuals, companies and private associations, not government agencies."

In other words, government agencies are free to lie to the public.

You can read the whole article on line at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/12/BUG0TAOPRK1.DTL
or http://tinyurl.com/3mrba

For more information on the law-suit, and the way dairy cows live, including distressing photographs and footage, visit http://www.unhappycows.com/

And please send a letter to the Chronicle. You might discuss the way animals raised for human food are treated, or sing the praises of soy milk. The San Francisco Chronicle takes letters at: letters [at] sfchronicle.com and advises, "Please limit your letters to 200 or fewer words ... shorter letters have a better chance of being selected for publication."

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.



(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)