The carcass-cooking food trucks that signed up for the barbecue competition at D.C.'s Meat Week got thoroughly smoked—by a pig, a cow, and some meat-free meatballs. 

PETA members and their costumed counterparts set out to give Meat Week attendees some flesh-free options, but as it turned out, meat-free was the only way to be: The food truck chefs couldn't handle the cold temperatures and retreated inside. The iron-fueled vegans, however, stayed out to greet passersby and share the secret behind their resilience: 

The event's organizers might not have been outside handing out meat, but they did have to hand it to our dedicated demonstrators. And in return, the PETA members offered the organizers a taste of compassionate fare that hopefully left them feeling a little warmer toward animals. 

Chick-fil-A's so-called "Cow Appreciation Day" involved giving chicken flesh to people who dressed up as cows. We think cows (and chickens) deserve better than that, so here's our new and improved Cow Appreciation Day. We're giving away The Compassionate Cook, our back-by-popular-demand, original vegan cookbook, featuring more than 225 recipes in which no cows, chickens, or any other animals were harmed. Just take the quiz below to learn why intelligent, sensitive cows aren't milk machines and then enter for your chance to win:

1. Just like people, cows are known to ________ when a loved one dies or is separated from them. 

2. True or False: Cows' sense of smell is even stronger in some ways than that of most dogs—they can detect scents up to 5 miles away.

3. This picture is of: 

A) a pipe cutter

B) one of the torture devices used in the Saw films

C) a guillotine dehorner, used by dairy farmers to chop off cows' sensitive horns

D) a Halloween haunted house prop

4. In nature, cows may nurse their calves for up to _____ years.

5.  After years of being kept almost constantly, forcibly pregnant and having their beloved babies repeatedly taken away from them so that their milk can be sold instead, when cows' milk production wanes, they are: 

A) put out to pasture on the farm to live out their days

B) retired to a sanctuary

C) feted with cake and alfalfa-flavored ice cream

D) sent to slaughter 

6. True or False: A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint—no two cows' spots are exactly the same.

7. Guys, get ready to squirm: Male calves who are taken from their mothers are usually _______ without so much as an aspirin.

8. True or False: Like people, cows communicate with each other using different vocal sounds, body positions, and subtle facial expressions.

9. A dairy industry study reports that by the time they are killed, nearly _____ percent of cows are lame because of the intensive confinement to the concrete floors of milking barns, the strain of being kept almost constantly pregnant, and being made to stand ankle-deep in their own dung.

A) 10

B) 20

C) 30

D) 40

10.  True or False: Bovines love a good brain teaser, such as figuring out how to open a gate's latch to let themselves out, and they get so excited that some even kick up their heels when they figure out the solution. 

*****

Check out the answer key below to see how you did, and then repost some of these interesting cow facts to show your friends why it's sour to steal cows' milk.

To enter to win The Compassionate Cook, just leave a comment telling us how you did on the quiz. A winner will be chosen at random. (Your score on the quiz does not affect your chances of winning.)

The contest will end on October 25, 2012, and we'll contact the winner by October 29, 2012. By commenting here, you're acknowledging that you've read and you agree to our contest terms and conditions and our privacy policy and you're also agreeing to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal info in accordance with those policies as well as to receiving e-mails from us.

Answers: 1) shed tears 2) True 3) C 4) three 5) D 6) True 7) castrated 8) True 9) D 10) True

With the discovery of mad cow disease in a cow from a California dairy farm and in potentially more cows as the U.S. Department of Agriculture searches for her former herdmates, PETA presents the top 10 reasons why cows are so darn mad:

1. How Many Kids and Counting?
   Unless you're Michelle Duggar, you probably have no inclination to crank out one baby after another. Neither do cows used for their milk, but they are kept almost constantly pregnant so that they will continue to produce more milk.
2. Crying Over Stolen Milk
   Mother cows know the meaning of "mother's love" too, and they often wail, sometimes for days, when their babies are taken away so that people can steal the milk that nature intended for their calves.
3. A Scene Out of a Saw Movie
   Farmers use one of several "Jigsaw"-inspired instruments—such as guillotine dehorners, caustic chemicals, searing-hot irons, and saws—to remove cows' horns and calves' sensitive horn tissue.



A barbaric device known as a "keystone" or "guillotine" dehorner

4. Castration Without So Much as an Aspirin
   Guys, you wouldn't like it. Male calves don't either.
5. Baby Bullies
   Veal is supposedly "tender" flesh, but there is nothing tender about how it is produced. Male calves, who are useless to the dairy industry because they don't produce milk, are often forced to live alone inside frighteningly tiny, dark crates for months, kept virtually immobilized so that their muscles can't develop, and deprived of sufficient iron, leaving their flesh the desired pale color.
6. A Bunch of Bull Crap
   Forcing cows to stand ankle-deep in feces on filthy lots is … you know the appropriate word.
7. Debbie Downer
   Downed cows are no longer allowed into the food supply, but what happens to them is a serious downer. They are sometimes simply left to die from their illness or injuries or from dehydration.
8. There's no D.A.R.E. Program for Cows
   Farmers genetically manipulate and sometimes drug cows in order to force them to produce up to four and a half times as much milk as they naturally would for their calves.
9. The Road Trip From Hell
   Anyone who has ever been crammed shoulder to shoulder in a coupe for an extended road trip knows how miserable it is, and that's even with bathroom breaks, food, water, and temperature controls. And while the trip may end at an annoying relative's house, at least it doesn't end at the slaughterhouse.
10. This Is the Thanks They Get
    After years of birthin' babies and pumping out thousands of gallons of milk, do cows used for their milk get a comfy retirement? Heck, no! They get sent to slaughter, where, in the words of one slaughterhouse worker, they "die piece by piece." A longtime slaughterhouse worker said he frequently cut the legs off completely conscious cows who blinked and made noises as their bodies were hacked apart.

Don't Get Mad—Get Vegan. Grab a free vegetarian/vegan starter kit and make for fewer mad cows in the world.

Jerry wasn't the outgoing, center-of-attention type. Even as a young calf, he seemed to possess the peaceful, quiet air of a wise old man, content to spend warm afternoons gazing out across the landscape with his best friend by his side.

Jerry enjoys a quiet afternoon with his friend Patrick. 
Courtesy of the Cow Sanctuary

But Jerry's early life was anything but serene. Rescued during a PETA investigation of a filthy dairy factory farm that supplied Land O'Lakes, Jerry was crippled, infested with lice and ringworm, and nearly blind from pink eye. He and another calf were taken in by the Cow Sanctuary, and with considerable love and medical care, they healed.

Instead of being killed for veal, as is the fate of most male calves in the dairy industry, Jerry spent his life as every animal should—exploring his surroundings, enjoying the company of friends (especially his pig friend, Patrick), and reveling in treats and love from his guardians.

Last week, with his health declining, Jerry was euthanized. He left this world as quietly as he lived in it, but the steer with the gentle spirit left a permanent mark on the hearts of those who loved him.

Farewell, sweet Jerry.

Winter Olympics, make way for Apolo Crowno. An enterprising bird turned a jar lid and a snowy roof into a thrilling winter sport.

Daisy the cow doesn't need Pop-A-Lock. When she wants to go for a stroll, she just unlatches the barn gate with her tongue.

After being swept away in an avalanche that claimed the life of one of his guardians, a dog in Montana used his wits to find his way back through 4 miles of snow to the exact hotel room where his family had been staying before the incident. A search-and-rescue team member drove the dog home to his grateful family.

Another intrepid dog's rescue was caught on tape when he swam up to a kayaker (whose boat was equipped with a video camera) a half-mile out into the Gulf of Mexico. The dog and his guardian had been hit by a drunken driver, and after seeing his guardian die, the terrified dog ran blindly into the sea. The kayaker was eventually able to track down the dog's family.

Perhaps the injured dog could tell that the kayaker would know what to do, thanks to dogs' uncanny ability to read human intent.

Many people, including scientists, hold that animals have a "sixth sense." One researcher has compiled thousands of cases in which animals sensed events such as an impending natural disaster or the imminent arrival of a family member.

Of course, anyone who has ever loved an animal knows how intelligent and sensitive each one is.

Razvan Antonescu/cc by 2.0

With people all over the country honoring their mothers this weekend, we thought it was the perfect time to dip into the archives and share one of our favorite stories about a mother who overcame tremendous obstacles to be reunited with her baby. 

Blackie, a 2-year-old cow, was happy just munching on grass and caring for her new baby, with whom she had spent nearly every moment of his young life. She had licked him clean after his birth, nudged him up onto wobbly legs, and watched him take his first tentative steps. But her bliss was short-lived. One day, Blackie and her calf were loaded onto a truck, taken on a frightening ride to market, and sold—separately.

Blackie, as any mother would be, was panicked and grief-stricken. Sometime during her first night in her new home, she broke out of the farmyard, jumped over a hedge, and set off in search of her calf. The next morning, she was found at another farm seven miles away, contentedly suckling her calf. When Blackie's new owner was traced, he was so moved by Blackie's maternal love that he purchased her calf so that mother and son could be together.

Is Blackie's love of her baby unique, or was her sorrow and desperation typical of what millions of other bovine mothers go through—without happy endings? On dairy farms, cows are impregnated every year, and their babies are torn away from them within hours of birth, just so that humans can drink the milk that nature intended for calves. This Mother's Day, you can do much more than send a card and flowers—you can help prevent cows from going through the agony of losing baby after baby, simply by boycotting dairy products and choosing milk made from almonds, rice, or soy instead.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

A California woman is suing Taco Bell after discovering that her beefy fast-food fixes are only 35 percent cow flesh. The other 65 percent is made up of oats, yeast, soybeans, corn starch, and various seasonings, all of which make the meat leaner and, dare we assume, less disgusting.

traveling.lunas/cc by 2.0

Considering how much gross stuff is often found in ground beef (saturated fat, cholesterol, hormones, antibiotics, E. coli, etc.) one would think that would be grounds for a lawsuit, not the other 65 percent.

Since Taco Bell's "beef" is already mostly vegan, why not go all the way? "One hundred percent cruelty-free" has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Written by Michelle Sherrow

sneakerdog/CC by 2.0

Here's some free financial advice from MoneyWatch: If you want to save money, go vegan. Beef and dairy prices are expected to rise by 5 percent in 2011. Pig meat—or "pork" to those who like to pretend that they're eating something other than the flesh of a dead, dismembered pig—will likely cost 3 or 4 percent more next year too.

And people who are actually willing to fork over money for a turkey's corpse have to fork over a whole lot more of it this year, largely because of a 56 percent increase in feed costs. (Yet another reason why I'm passing on turkey!)

The real savings of going vegan can't be put in a bank—animals' lives, the environment, and good health (well, unless you count all the money you save on healthcare costs)—but vegans do tend come out ahead in the supermarket check-out lane, so it simply makes cents (get it? sense?) to go vegan.

Written by Heather Moore

marestra / CC by 2.0

We're relieved that a "chicken" who was shot at by passing motorists outside a Burger Barn in Wichita wasn't seriously injured.

We wish we could say the same for the cows whom the "chicken" was encouraging people to eat. (The "chicken" was actually a man named Robert Hatter, who was holding a sign reading "Eat More Beef!") Destined to be turned into beef patties, cows on factory farms suffer painful dehorning, branding, and castration without being given any painkillers. They feel terror, hunger, and thirst during their treacherous trek to the slaughterhouse, where they are hoisted upside down and slaughtered.

We're hopeful, however, that his harrowing experience will cause Hatter to think twice about promoting violence toward other animals. I can't think of a better way to do that than by ordering a copy of our vegetarian/vegan starter kit.

Written by Karin Bennett

Actually, to be precise, Jerry's a steer. A PETA investigator found him hobbling around a field and scrounging for weeds at the appallingly filthy Pennsylvania dairy farm we told you about last month. This is how the investigator described the 5-month-old calf in her log:

The flies seemed to know that Jerry was a goner.

In addition to being crippled, the young calf was crawling with lice and was nearly blind because of pinkeye, a bacterial infection that spreads like wildfire in the disgusting conditions on factory farms. PETA's investigator bought Jerry and whisked him away to a "safe house" until he could be driven to his new home at a sanctuary.

Although he was initially (and understandably) terrified of humans, we're told that Jerry became mysteriously calm during the ride to the sanctuary. It was as if he considered the journey to be an adventure and knew that it would end at a safe and loving place.

Jerry has (literally) landed in clover.

Jerry has now almost fully recovered and regained most of his sight. He loves to wait outside the back door every evening at dinner time, and he's become the adopted "big brother" of another calf who was rescued from the same farm. If the younger calf strays too far, Jerry will go off in search of his adopted sibling.

Unfortunately, not all calves are as lucky as Jerry. Most male calves who are born on dairy farms are sent to slaughter, usually after they've been confined for up to 23 weeks to cramped veal crates that are intended to prevent the calves from moving so that their flesh will stay unnaturally pale. Making sure that you don't contribute to their suffering is as easy as giving up dairy foods.

To read a more about Jerry, you can head over to Facebook, where he is featured on our "causes" page.

Written by Alisa Mullins