Sep 26 2008
PETA Is Crazy but You’re Missing the Point
A lot of people are talking about how crazy PETA is since they wrote Ben and Jerry’s telling them to use human breast milk instead of cow’s milk. Ben and Jerry’s released a statement saying they applauded their out-of-the-box thinking but thought that human babies needed that breast milk.
Hello? Welcome to PETA’s point.
If you’ve never researched the dairy industry, I encourage you to do so. I personally don’t care much for cow’s milk and never have, so it’s not that hard for me to eat soy milk, hemp milk, rice milk,etc instead (I actually prefer hemp milk in a lot of things.).
But here’s what I know about the dairy industry. They impregnate female cows, take their babies away from them to become veal or dairy cows and then use all their breast milk - the milk intended to feed those babies that are in the process of being slaughtered (or raised to be used and then slaughtered)- to make your cheese, your milk, your butter, your ice cream. Your three servings daily.
This is the point PETA, however insane they are, is trying to make. You are treating a cow as subservient to your needs. Subservient to what you think your needs are, anyway.
I’m not vegan, yet. And I see dairy cows every week when I go to the natural market. They look pretty happy, I guess. They could probably use more land. But it’s hard for me to think about the dairy industry without getting sad and angry. Not just for the lies they tell you (those three servings a day… totally not necessary), but also because of the way they take advantage of nature to feed people who have other options. Those calves don’t have any other options.
I still think PETA is crazy. Writing Ben and Jerry’s instead of… I dunno, a dairy company that doesn’t specialize so much seems wasteful. Besides, Ben and Jerry’s, whatever their animal politics are, refuses growth hormones for their cows and takes an ecological stand. They’re doing less damage, as a whole, than many other dairy companies.