Read the original article by Taylor Leach at dairyherd.com here.
Hollywood actress, Alicia Silverstone, and the animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), are teaming up to taint dairy’s name.
Directing their message towards school children, the duo is working to bring Carly, a life-size animatronic cow, to classrooms across the country to “teach” students about the “negative” impacts of the dairy industry, according to an article written by Romper.
Silverstone, a longtime vegan who has starred in movies such as Cluelessand the 1997 Batman & Robin, severs as the voice behind Carly, an animatronic cow who “escaped from a dairy farm and now lives at an animal sanctuary.”
Making her way through elementary school classrooms, Carly speaks to students, teachers and parents to spread her message about the “consequences” of consuming dairy.
“When people drink cow’s milk or eat food made from our milk, like cheese, butter, and ice cream, I don’t think they have any idea what our lives are really like,” Carly tells school children. “Cows can feel happy, sad, and scared. We cry when we’re upset. We definitely have things that we like and things that we don’t like. Each cow is as special and different as each of you.”
Not only does this puppet bash the hard work dairy farmers have put into providing a safe, healthy and nutritious product, but it also attempts to persuade students to believe that farmers do not care for their animals.
“On the dairy farm, my babies were taken away from me when they were just a day or two old so that my milk could be sold in stores instead of given to them,” Carly says. “I still think about my babies every day, and I miss them soooo much.”
Tainting dairy farmers names, PETA and Silverstone are working to share the wrong story about the dairy industry. However, organizations like the Southwest Dairy Farmers Mobile Dairy Classroom program are working to send the message students should be hearing.
“Our trained instructors will demonstrate how to milk a cow, describe how milk goes from the farm to the consumer, and then answer questions from the audience,” according to the Southwest Dairy Farmers website. “This is an innovative program that brings the dairy experience directly to children. At schools, students and teachers share an experience that includes math, science, health (nutrition), and agriculture, all presented in an outdoor classroom format.”
To see the Southwest Dairy Farmers Mobile Dairy Classroom in action, watch:
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