- Title: PETA activists bare breasts to wean people off cow's milk on Mothers' Day
- Date: 5th June 2020
- Summary: SIGN READING (French): "WEAN YOURSELF OFF" (SOUNDBITE) (French) PETA FRANCE SPOKESPERSON, MARIE-MORGANE JEANNEAU, SAYING: "Milk's production is inherently exploitative of the link between mother and child. For a cow to produce milk, it must have a baby. We remove that baby and the milk that was for it to feed on, for people to buy it and consume it. We call on all compassi
- Embargoed: 19th June 2020 13:58
- Keywords: Mother's Day PETA cows cruelty milk treatment
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA005CH3DNPJ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS NUDITY
Four animal rights activists bared their breasts in central Paris on Friday (June 5) ahead of Mothers' Day to encourage people to wean themselves off milk.
With slogans like "Milk = cruelty" and "Not your mother, not your milk" painted on their chests and bellies, the PETA activists (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said they wanted to draw attention to the suffering of cows, whose calves are taken away at birth so that they can produce milk for dairy farms.
PETA says that on Mothers' Day - which is on Sunday (June 7) in France - people think of human mothers' bond with their children, but that animals also strongly bonded with their offspring and that no industry exploited that bond on a bigger scale than the dairy industry.
PETA says there is no need to drink milk as there are many plant-based alternatives such as soy milk, oat milk and milk made from rice, spelt, almonds and cashews.
Milk producers federation FNPL's Marie-Therese Bonneau said that while she could understand that the practice of separating calves from the cows shortly after birth can bother some people, farmers take care of the calves and feed them their mother's milk in order to protect them with maternal antibodies.
She added that while initially the calves are isolated in individual cages for sanitary reasons, dairy farmers go see them often and that a strong bond is created between the farmer and the young animal.
France is Europe's second-biggest milk producer in Europe after Germany, with output of nearly 24 billion litres of milk per year and annual turnover of about 30 billion euros.
(Production: Clotaire Achi, Melodie Sforza, Yiming Woo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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