Mere days after announcing the incomprehensible move to replace vegetarian whey with a non-vegetarian version in some products, Masterfoods had to admit a huge mistake and reverse the decision:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6673549.stm

Apparently 6000 complaints makes a company sit up and take notice. Some comments from the article worth note:

[QUOTE] its products were no longer suitable for "extremely strict vegetarians"...Rennet is extracted from calves' stomachs and was to have been used in the ice cream versions of all Masterfoods' bars too. [/QUOTE]

In no way is animal rennet ever suitable for a vegetarian, strict or not. It isn't just "extracted" from the calf - they kill the poor thing just after birth and tear out the lining of one of the stomachs. The alternative is microbial rennet, which makes cheese just as cheesy but doesn't directly involve the death of a baby cow.

Of course, indirectly, calves still die for milk products; the dairy industry has a lot of other issues that they don't like to make obvious, like the fact that the veal industry only exists because of the dairy industry. Veal is also baby cow - the ones that don't get torn up for rennet are locked into a small crate and left there to grow, so that they can't move around and build up any muscle. They are a by-product of keeping the cows constantly pregnant.

The best solution is to avoid dairy completely. For more info see:

• http://www.milksucks.com/
• http://www.unhappycows.com/