This week, PETA's cavorting cow has been urging people in cities across the U.S. to dump dairy from their diets with a not-so-subtle hint.

Why's this heifer in a huff?

Last week, PETA released undercover footage of cows who were kept on a Land O'Lakes supplier's factory farm in pens covered with feces. They were denied veterinary care and even kicked or stabbed with pocket knives when they were too weak to stand.

If dairy foods were deadly for your relatives, you'd want people to ditch it, too, right? Well, dairy foods have been linked to a slew of human health issues, including allergies, obesity, prostate cancer, heart disease, and autism.

Posted by Heather Drennan

PETA's investigation footage from a filthy Pennsylvania dairy facility that supplies Land O'Lakes continues to receive massive press coverage. All the coverage has prompted the Fortune 250 company to issue an official statement—one that only serves to highlight the profit-driven callousness and lack of concern for animals within the corporation and the dairy industry as a whole.

Jeanne Forbis, the director of communications at Land O'Lakes, said, "[W]hen state-certified inspectors do inspections at dairy farms they are inspecting for milk and equipment sanitation practices, not animal treatment."

Is that supposed to be the "excuse" for why the Land O'Lakes inspector didn't bother to note that cows were living in filth, without bedding or a clean, dry place for shelter? Or that lameness and mastitis were rampant? How about the fact that there were cows who were so debilitated and thin that they looked like skeletons with skin draped over them?

Frankly, the inspector didn't do very well on inspecting for sanitation either. Take a look at the video—animals are virtually swimming in a soup of urine and fecal matter. All Forbis's comment does is raise some serious doubts about the quality of the sanitation inspections that led to the approval of this facility.

Various agencies are now looking into PETA's allegations of abuse, as well as sanitation and food safety violations, against the dairy facility's owners. Abuse of animals in the dairy industry is nothing new, so please consider dropping cholesterol and cruelty-filled dairy products from your diet.

Posted by Heather Drennan

wonkroom.thinkprogress / CC

Oops, they did it again. Tyson Fresh Meats, a subsidiary of Tyson Foods, has been fined $2 million for pumping untreated animal waste (to the tune of 5 million gallons a day) into the Missouri River. The reason for the fine is that they agreed in 2002 to knock it off and, well, they didn't.

It's a given that cows on factory farms are forced to live most of their lives in feces-filled holding pens, and it was so nice of Tyson to share that crap with everyone who relies on the Missouri river for drinking and bathing water.

And if you think this is an isolated case, think again. In 2002, a Cargill-owned hog farm was fined $1 million for illegally dumping animal waste, and Smithfield Foods, the world's largest hog producer, has been fined $12.6 million for polluting the Pagan River, just to name a couple of examples.

Of course, water pollution is just one of the many ways that factory farming wreaks havoc on the environment. Don't even get us started on greenhouse-gas emissions, deforestation, and wasted fossil fuels.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

With the news that Cuba's toilet paper is nearly wiped out, number one on our to-do list is to offer President Raúl Castro a supply of PETA's pro-vegetarian T.P., which points out that slaughter methods in filthy slaughterhouses mean that feces can be found on almost every bit of meat.

Now there's some crucial info for him to digest while he takes care of his presidential business.

Posted by Karin Bennett

Our recent demo in Kansas City was really, really crappy. Which was good, considering that we were handing out toilet paper. You see, we staked out a local steakhouse and greeted patrons with T.P. that was embossed with a special meaty message. Why give away this fly two-ply? Someone needs to tell meat-eaters that they're full of crap.

And here’s a close-up from our Columbia demo:

Consider this nasty little nugget of truth: A lot of the flesh from the 10 billion animals who are killed for meat in the U.S. each year is contaminated with E. coli, campylobacter, listeria, and other dangerous bacteria that live in the intestinal tracts and feces of animals. Just think about it: Animals on today's factory farms are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and slaughtered on killing floors that are contaminated with feces, vomit, and other bodily fluids. Is it really any surprise that these unsanitary conditions breed bacteria? Um, that would be a hell-to-the-no!

With more than 75 million cases of food poisoning each year in the U.S.—70 percent of which are caused by contaminated animal products—no one can deny that tainted meat is a major health threat. Plus, even if the bacteria in your burger doesn't kill you now, the saturated fat and cholesterol might lead to obesity, heart disease, and certain types of cancer later on down the road.

Our demonstration also made it down to Omaha. Check out these fantastic pictures:

That said, what would you like on your veggie burger?

Posted by Amy Elizabeth