PETA: Aren't People Animals Too?

The People For Ethical Treatment of Animals are at it again! Recently, PETA (famous for their odd sense of... beliefs...) sent a letter of recommendation to Ben and Jerry's famous ice cream company. The recommendation?

Breast milk.

PETA wrote that "using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health." Perhaps PETA should have looked into this a bit more before pointing fingers. Breast milk could actually be an even bigger hazard to the people consuming it.

Breast milk is used as nutrition for a growing baby. Most people who are consuming ice cream generally aren't infants. With the expanding waist lines of the American people, ice cream should already be a no-no. But, ice cream made with breast milk? Common knowledge tells us that breast milk helps babies gain weight, Americans don't need to gain any more - that's for sure.

PETA suggests that Ben and Jerry's take a cue from a Switzerland restaurant and pay women for their donations of breast milk. Apparently PETA thinks Ben and Jerry's have enough extra cash on hand to test each and every individual sample of breast milk that comes through their doors - because that's what they would have to do.

Each woman who donated breast milk would have to be tested for drugs (prescription, over-the-counter, and illegal.) In addition to this, they would also have to keep records of everything the woman has recently eaten that could still be in her system. People have food allergies, it's very common - and there really isn't any way to guarantee the safety of each and every person who ate Ben and Jerry's, because in all honesty, there wouldn't be enough time (or money) to test each sample of breast milk for every food known to mankind, in addition to every drug known to mankind. The fact that PETA would even suggest this only shows ignorance, because clearly they didn't research or think this through very well, but again - maybe I'm just out of my element.

Anyone who had an allergic reaction to a specific prescription, over-the-counter, or illegal drugs - would face serious illness, or even death - from consuming possibly tainted breast milk. Anyone who had a food allergy could also face the same events from consuming milk produced by a woman who perhaps ate, oh say - peanuts? Of course, peanuts are one of the more common allergies, but what about the little boy who's allergic to iceberg lettuce, or peaches? Perhaps a woman ate these, it would be in her breast milk - and he would suffer serious consequences - just for eating ice cream.

Is that really the life people would want to live? Ben and Jerry's Famous Ice Cream no longer available to them - because even the slightest bit could cause them sickness, or in extreme cases; death?

It should have been common knowledge to the people of PETA that whatever the mother consumes, the infant will also consume - even after birth! (Through the breast milk.)

I honestly have to wonder how much thought PETA put into this little theory of theirs, and of course, how much knowledge does this restaurant have on the risks of using breast milk in their products. So, should the public be forced to do the same? Eat anything that the producers of the breast milk have already eaten?

I recommend googling "tainted breast milk" and you'll see what I mean. There are thousands of pages telling tales of infants becoming extremely ill - and dying, from tainted breast milk. One of the top results from The New York Times tells the tale of a child dying from "drug-tainted breast milk."

Is this really what PETA wants for the people of the world? And if so, how would it even be possible for Ben and Jerry's to find enough clean, drug-free, allergen free breast milk. It wouldn't, it would be impossible. There are too many allergies in the world, too many drugs, pesticides, so on and so forth. It's completely unrealistic.

Perhaps PETA should take a look at the milk crisis in China. Sure, it isn't from breast milk - but it still proves the point that anything in milk can be passed on to anyone.

Why should Ben and Jerry's be forced to spend so much time and effort (and not to mention the extravagant amounts of cash) just to test all of the milk, just so that way people can eat breast milk ice cream? While they're at it, they need to start going after the rest of the world for all of the other animals used for milk - because it's not just cows. In fact, one could make the assumption that in the country of India - there could be an equal amount of goats being used to produce milk (since cows are sacred in India.) In fact, WikiPedia shows a graph on their milk entry that proves this. India tops the United States in milk production by over 10,000 tons. How about that, PETA?

Perhaps someone should tell PETA: People are animals too.