National Veal Ban Action Day

From its first day to its last, the life of a “fed” calf is a month of deprivation, stress, and illness. Veal factories take newborn male calves from their mothers and chain them in crates just 22" wide and 58" long. This is where they will spend their lives.

Chained in tiny crates, calves cannot walk, turn, stretch their legs or lie in a natural position. In order to obtain the brightly colored meat sold as "milk-fed" veal, anemic calves were deliberately kept.

• Calves are denied all solid food.

• Calves with chronic diarrhea.

• Calves are raised in the dark.

• Respiratory and intestinal diseases are prevalent in calves.

• Calves are deprived of drinking water.

• In a futile attempt to quench thirst, calves gain weight rapidly by drinking more medicated liquid feed. Serious foot injuries are caused by a lack of straw or other litter. In order to prevent muscle growth and accelerate weight gain, the calves are absolutely not allowed to exercise.

This is the terrible fate of hundreds of thousands of calves every year in America.

Danger to human health

Do you intentionally serve your family with sulfa drugs, clenbuterol, penicillin, tetracycline, or resistant strains of bacteria at dinner? Unfortunately, these and countless other substances have been found in calves. The harsh conditions in the veal factories made the calves very sick. By taking away breast milk, fresh air, exercise, adequate nutrition and proper veterinary care, calves are breeding grounds for stress and infectious diseases.

Veal factories try to counter the effects of intensive farming by using a variety of antibiotics and other chemicals. This "cost-effective" practice represents a significant hazard to public health. The frequent use of antibiotics in veal and other factory farm products leads to antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. These virulent bacteria render previously life-saving antibiotics useless against disease in humans.

"This is how calves live. Every minute, every hour. Every day."

- Bradley Miller, HFA on the Oprah Winfrey Show

There's good reason The New York Times declares our National Veal Boycott the most successful animal rights boycott in the United States. We're pleased to announce that, once again this year, the HFA signature campaign has driven per capita veal consumption in the United States to an all-time low!

When the HFA began the National Veal Boycott, veal production was the most rapidly expanding segment of the meat industry. Because of HFA's relentless campaigning over the years, including television commercials, full-page ads in major publications such as Time and Newsweek and others, annual veal production has plummeted from a high of 3, 4 million calves down to the current level of less than 0.5 million.

The HFA also made headlines for what would become the legendary undercover investigation and direct attacks on the veal industry's drug-based methods of operation. In doing so, the HFA has succeeded in curbing the use of the veal industry's most beloved growth hormone, clenbuterol. And widespread national publicity about this toxic and illegal drug has helped inform millions of Americans of the dangers and cruelty associated with veal production.

When measuring our success, we don't just add up the number of veal plants HFA has closed, the media coverage we've generated, or the number of states that have switched to veal packing is prohibited.

It is the dramatic drop in US veal sales that tells the real story of HFA's unparalleled success in preventing the suffering of millions of animals. But we can't give up now! Your continued support will help further progress HFA (hfa.org).