ANTI-milk campaigners have been forced to withdraw two Pokemon-style trading cards but can still distribute other, shocking, images of children drinking milk.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaigners are coming to Bolton in two weeks time to give out the cards.

Campaigners will target primary school children by giving out the images outside school gates.

They depict young children in distorted situations with various health problems, featuring "Windy Wendy", "Phlegmy Phil", "Spotty Sue" and "Chubby Charlie".

PETA claims milk and other dairy products cause children all sorts of problems, including gas, obesity, spots and allergies.

The Advertising Standards Agency has banned Phlegmy Phil and Chubbie Charlie, forcing PETA to redesign the campaign.

The American-based animal rights activists are unable to use the cards to advertise for veganism.

The cards caused an outcry when the BEN exclusively revealed the campaign this spring.

At the time, Cllr Linda Thomas, executive member for the council's education department, said: "This goes against everything we have taught children.

"This sort of material does not seem to be the suitable sort of information that children should be seeing.

"It is scaremongering and it is vulgar.

"It could insult those who have a weight problem or any particular health problem."

A spokesman for PETA said: "The ASA ruled the cards were too exaggerated so we have changed the two in question to make them purely factual.

"The ASA did not rule that PETA's claims were untrue, nor could it, because the scientific consensus is absolutely clear.

"Dairy products are linked to wind, spots, obesity and phlegm, among many other ailments.

"But we're more than happy to oblige and the cards are now better than they were before the ruling.

"This ruling affirms that consuming milk and other dairy products is bad for human health, horrible for the environment and awful for animals.

"The only ones who should be drinking cows milk are calves.

"Bolton is still on our list of targets."

The Diary Council, National Farmers Union of England and Wales and the National Farmers Union of Scotland criticised the cards as "irresponsible".

Jill Eisberg, the Dairy Council's head of communications, said: "We are amazed to hear PETA has stated that they will continue to distribute these cards outside primary schools, despite the ruling from the ASA.

"We are consulting within our industry about what we do next, because it would appear that a ruling by the authoritative advertising watchdog is not sufficient to stop them.

"Whilst we acknowledge that some people may be opposed to animal farming on ethical grounds, this is no reason to make unsubstantiated and unscientific claims about the nutritional value of dairy products."