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# Cruelty to California cows
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/cruelty-to-california-cows-editor/
- Published: 2005-06-13T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:14:59.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Promenade, #archive-import

*By Erika Willhite Santa Monica*

Please accept my heart-felt gratitude and deep appreciation for covering PETA’s “Unhappy Cows Campaign” (SMDP, June 9, page 1) that converged on the Promenade yesterday. Every time I drive the I-5 north, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, I am sickened by the stench, filth, mud and feces California’s cows suffer amid daily.

California’s dairy cows are crammed into huge lots, where they live covered in mud and their own feces for most of their miserable lives. They are pumped full of drugs to keep them producing unnatural amounts of milk. Consequently, their udders often become swollen and infected. Then, they are forcefully impregnated every year to keep them producing milk, and their male babies often end up chained by their necks in veal crates before being slaughtered at just 16 weeks old. Although PETA’s campaign specifically targets California dairy cows, I can tell you the cows at the feedlot off the I-5 just south of Newman, Calif., are not “happy” either. Your front-page photo helps bring attention to the cruel and unnecessary conditions these sentient beings are relegated to. In fact, the way that California’s cows are treated would warrant felony cruelty-to-animals charges if cows were protected by the laws that protect dogs and cats. I hope more papers follow your example in covering campaigns that expose such avoidable cruelty.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 13, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/061305.pdf?ref=smdp.com)