A campaign seeking to raise awareness over animal suffering in the dairy sector has been removed from a Flemish company's public transport vehicles after it was deemed offensive for parts of the public.
The campaign by vegan non-profit BE Vegan consisted of ads featuring a glass of milk with a drop of blood trickling down its side paired with the message: "Milk is deadly."
Put up on vehicles of public transport company De Lijn in Antwerp and in Ghent, the campaign was pulled on 3 October in mutual consultation with the transport company and vegan non-profit, De Lijn said in a statement.
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Figures in the ad said that 150,00 calves died in Belgium each year as a result of the dairy industry, with a statement about the campaign on the vegan group's website saying that, in order to up milk production, the industry imposes a life of "successive pregnancies" on the cows and systematically separates them from their calves.
The campaign was criticised by members of the dairy industry, with a representative of the European Council of Young Farmers saying that the campaign fell short of promoting people's diets and instead chose the "shameless polarisation of milk.”
In an Instagram post, BE Vegan said that the campaign was censored after "threats and intimidations" by the dairy industry, adding that they were "just getting started."
The decision was taken because the campaign was "perceived as offensive by certain members of the public," De Lijn said in a statement, adding that this made it inconsistent with their code of ethics.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times