WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 1, 2025) — In anticipation of National Dairy Month this June, supporters of In Defense of Animals have inundated Congress and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins with over 10,000 emails and numerous calls, demanding an end to taxpayer-funded subsidies for animal agribusiness. These appeals advocate for a shift to a plant-based food system that respects animals, promotes public health, and protects the environment.

“Most people don’t realize that the majority of animals killed for food are infants,” said Lia Wilbourn, Farmed Animals Campaign Coordinator for In Defense of Animals. “On top of the horrific exploitation, cruelty, and killing inflicted on these sentient beings, the dairy sector and all animal farming desecrates our environment and fuels zoonotic diseases like bird flu by confining billions of animals in nightmarish conditions, putting us all at risk for a pandemic worse than COVID-19. It’s illogical brutality and destruction for products we don’t even need and are better off without.”

In the U.S., animal agribusiness receives 800 times more subsidies than plant-based, animal-free alternatives. A significant portion of taxpayer funds are directed toward propping up failing farms and deceptive marketing that minimizes the cruelty and violence inflicted on animals and the public and environmental health threats posed by animal farming, as well as health risks from direct dairy consumption.  

The ongoing H5N1 bird flu crisis has already spread the highly pathogenic avian influenza to over 1,064 dairy herds in the United States. Ranching runoff poisons water bodies, and airborne pollution from farms sickens those who live nearby — usually lower income families who are unable to pay resulting medical bills. 

Mounting scientific evidence links animal products to increased risks of chronic human diseases, yet the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to unjustifiably encourage  consumption as “healthy, humane, sustainable,” allocating an additional $10 billion to animal farming in March 2025.

In dairy farming, male calves — who can't produce milk — are often shot in small farms, sent to slaughterhouses, or confined in veal crates for up to 16 weeks. While some male dairy calves may be kept for breeding, most are killed. Mother dairy cows endure repeated sexual violation and forced impregnation, have their calves taken, and are slaughtered when their milk production declines or they collapse from exhaustion while they are still young.

As public awareness grows about the suffering and environmental damage caused by industrial animal farming, the meat, dairy, and egg industries are rebranding with marketing buzzwords like “high welfare”, “grass-fed,” “pasture-raised,” and “regenerative.” But these methods are worse than factory farms when it comes to land use, ecosystem damage and the killing of wild animals to protect ranching. 

About 80% of farmland is already used for dairy and meat. Switching entirely to grass-fed beef would require 30% more cows and emit 43% more methane — an ultra-potent greenhouse gas far more destructive than carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas from the oil industry. 

A study in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems found that “regenerative” grazing would require 2.5 times more land than conventional feedlots, decimating biodiversity and increasing emissions that fuel the climate crisis. 

June 1st is also National Animal Rights Day. The dairy industry sanitizes its language, using terms like “breeding”, “stunning,” and “processing”, but the realities include ‘rape racks’ used for forced impregnation, routine mutilations without painkillers, taking babies from their mothers, and slaughtering the male calves and their mothers. 

A plant-based food system would eliminate this torment and killing while improving public health and dramatically reducing environmental harm caused by animal farming, including deforestation, species extinction, water depletion, habitat destruction, and the killing of wild animals.

Leading nutrition experts agree that a balanced plant-based diet supports health and reduces the risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.

“We can now produce cow’s milk without cows — no infections, no pregnancies, no manure lagoons — so why are taxpayers still subsidizing 73 percent of dairy revenues as if it’s the only option, instead of supporting protein production that doesn’t exploit disease-prone animals or contribute to pandemic risks?” said Dr. Crystal Heath, veterinarian and co-founder of Our Honor, a veterinary advocacy organization.

In Defense of Animals urges Congress and the USDA to stop propping up the cruel, unnecessary, planet-harming animal agriculture system, and instead invest in a truly sustainable, humane, plant-based future.

Members of the public can take action by sending a letter to Congress and the USDA.

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Contact: Lia Wilbourn, (707) 776-6828, lia@idausa.org

• See the latest news and take action for farmed animals and the planet. 
• Uncover how animal agribusiness deceives consumers with feel-good marketing.
• Learn why fixating only on factory farms limits true reform.
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In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization based in California with over 250,000 supporters and a history of fighting for animals, people, and the environment through education and campaigns, as well as hands-on rescue facilities in India, South Korea, rural Mississippi, and central California, since 1983. https://www.idausa.org/farmedanimals

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