Bovine Blues.

Local activists are injecting a sour note into the California Milk Advisory Board's "Talking Cow" advertising campaign, which features joyful cows singing in wide-open fields.

Last Chance for Animals, a national animal rights group based in West Hollywood, has filed a complaint with the state Attorney General's Office accusing the California Milk Advisory Board (the group behind the "Talking Cow" ads) of false advertising, fraud and misrepresentation. Last Chance claims that California dairy cows are kept in unsatisfactory conditions and treated poorly.

Milk Board officials countered that the ads are filmed on California dairy farms and that the state's dairy farmers "lead the nation in terms of the care ... that goes into raising their cows."

Last Chance was not assuaged.

"Obviously, cows aren't singing in a field," said Lacey Levitt, campaign director for Last Chance. "We sort of couldn't let ('Talking Cows') air without doing something."