The ASA has dismissed complaints over a newspaper ad for campaign group Go Vegan World, which carried a headline stating ‘Humane milk is a myth. Don’t buy it’.
The ad (above), which appeared in the national press in February, featured a photo of a cow behind a piece of barbed wire under the headline, while smaller text graphically described the birthing process of dairy cows.
Seven complainants - some of whom had worked in dairy - believed the ad did not accurately describe the way dairy cattle were generally treated in the UK. They challenged whether the claim “Humane milk is a myth” and accompanying claims “The mothers, still bloody from birth” and “their daughters, fresh from their mothers’ wombs but separated from them” were misleading and could be substantiated.
The ASA said it understood the complainants were concerned the ad’s claims implied a significant number of dairy farms did not comply with animal welfare standards that were in place in the UK, and that milk production was therefore “inhumane” in that sense.
However, it did not uphold the complaints, despite the “emotional and hard-hitting language” used in the ad, as it understood it was the case calves “were generally separated from their mothers very soon after birth, and we therefore concluded that it was “unlikely to materially mislead readers”.
NFU dairy board chairman Michael Oakes said he was surprised by the ruling, adding the poster presented an inaccurate representation of the British dairy industry and, therefore, had the potential to mislead the public.
“Sadly, adverts like this one fail to recognise the high standards of animal welfare farmers adhere to. British dairy farmers take the health, welfare and well-being of their cows and calves very seriously.”
Go Vegan World described the ruling as a “landmark decision”, while the complainants had “entirely missed the point of the ad”, it claimed.
The group’s director Sandra Higgins said: “Far from suggesting that the issue is a failure to comply with welfare regulations, the ad makes it clear that dairy is inherently inhumane, regardless of compliance with welfare regulations.”
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