Pus Stop: PETA Receives Threat of Lawsuit From Milk Lords Over Its Got Pus? Campaign

by Nicole
The California Milk Processors Board (CMPB) has threatened PETA with a lawsuit over their parody of the Got Milk? slogan. Lawyers representing the CMPB allege that PETA's Got Pus? campaign infringes on the Got Milk? trademark, and have demanded that the animal rights organization cease using the phrase in its campaigns. In addition, the CMPB wants PETA to hand over all merchandise stock bearing the contentious slogan, and profits from all Got Pus? goods sold to date.

PETA deny the allegations since parody is protected under law, as long as it "does not confuse the public as to the source of the usage." Their lawyers have fired off a response stating that, "As part of its mission to educate consumers about the industry's practices, PETA has, among other things, parodied the 'Got Milk?' slogan that the milk industry uses to market milk. Such parodies include PETA's 'Got Zits?,' 'Got Heart Disease?,' 'Got Breast Cancer?,' 'Got Sick Kids?,' 'Got Diabetes?,' and 'Got Veal?' campaigns as well as the 'Got Pus? Milk Does' campaign at issue here. PETA launched each of these campaigns to draw attention to the fact that drinking milk is linked to these various health ailments as well as to support for the veal industry."

Pus gets into the milk supply due to infection in a cow's nipple, which causes inflammation. The condition, known as mastitis, has been linked to the use of Monsanto's bovine growth hormone Prosilac, which stimulates cows to produce milk in unnaturally large quantities. Dairy farmers feed cattle antibiotics en masse in an attempt to control the problem.

To combat this issue the milk industry have developed a system called the "somatic cell count," somatic being a fancy word for pus. According to standards set by the dairy industry, the somatic cell count shouldn't exceed 200 million per liter, though Milk Sucks, an anti-dairy organization, claims that milk entering the food chain often exceeds these safety standards, with the national average being 322 million per liter.

"Chances are good that when you consume milk, you're consuming pus," says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich in a statement. The organization reckons that each glass of milk contains between one and seven drop of pus. "Instead of squandering money on groundless threats, the milk industry should be more concerned with the pain and misery that it causes for millions of cows and their calves."

The CMPB contends there's no truth to the pus claims however. "Milk is one of the most regulated, tested and therefore safest products that consumers can buy," said Steve James, CMPB's executive director. "Pasteurization has been required for almost a century in order to remove harmful organisms and bacteria so it's safe for human biology."

Until all cows are happy natural cows, The Daily Mantra's sticking to hormone-free organic milk in our morning coffee, but this still leaves us wondering what else is floating around in our cup!

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