PETA And Ice Cream

Remember when PETA came up with some stupid idea to try to have fish called “Sea Kittens?” You know – those creatures that viciously eat their own young, other fish’s young ones, and sometimes can be so invasive such as brown trout eating the naturally occurring brook trout – yes – gentle sea kittens.

Well now PETA is at it again and ignore fact and write lies.  While trying to convince an American ice cream maker to use human breast milk instead of cow’s milk as the ingredient in the ice cream.

According to WPTZ, PETA’s Executive Vice President, Tracy Reiman, wrote a letter to the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. to try to persuade them to purchase human milk instead of dairy milk.  Personally, I’m not against anyone using human milk in their ice cream if that is what they prefer.  I guess to some it might be distasteful – but in reality, there’s probably no valid scientific reason why human milk couldn’t be tried and used.  I mean, if we consume cow milk, which comes from the teats of cows, I guess human milk isn’t really all that different except in the emotional area of our minds.

But what bothers me the most are the lies that PETA writes in their letter:

“Like all mammals, cows only produce milk during and after pregnancy, so to be able to constantly milk them, cows are forcefully impregnated every nine months. After several years of living in filthy conditions…”

I’ve worked on dairy farms and ranches in Canada and I can tell you from first hand experience that cows are not forcefully impregnated very nine months.  First, the gestation period of cows is about nine months, so if PETA’s assertion is correct, that means that as soon as a cow gives birth, it is immediately impregnated again.  This is stupid and not true.

Cows are impregnated and when pregnant, do not give milk – at least the farm I worked on didn’t milk pregnant cows.  When the cow gave birth, the calf remained with the mother for at least several days as the first “milk” that comes out is filled with a special nutrition that the new born calf will use.  It is after that period when the cow is then milked by the farmer.

And then, the cow is milked for quite some time before it is given a rest and then impregnated again.

Also, the idea of a cow being “forcefully” impregnated is a bit misleading.  Even in nature, cows don’t go out on dates with bulls, and then consent to be impregnated by the bull.  If the cow is in heat, the bull will sense it… and the bull just does his own thing – quite forcefully.  Artificial impregnation for cows is probably far more gentle and at much less risk of injury to the cow than when wild bulls come along.

As far as filthy conditions – I can’t speak for dairy farms today, but when I worked there, cows wandered around a pasture eating grass in the spring, summer and fall months, and came into the barn twice a day for milking.  The barn was cleaned after each and every milking.  If there was any filth, it was the cows out in the pasture “going” wherever they felt like, and not caring about where they stepped or lay down.

In winter months, the cows were kept in the barn on very cold days and nights for their own protection against the elements.

In the same letter, PETA VP Tracy Reiman writes:

“The late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on child care, spoke out against feeding cow’s milk to children, saying it may play a role in anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term, will set kids up for obesity and heart disease-America’s number one cause of death.”

Well, that is a classical logical fallacy of appeal to authority.  You might as well say that just because Oprah says something and she’s trusted by millions, it must be true.  Does PETA cite any scientific studies to support Spock’s claims?  Nope.

PETA is very good at using the logical fallacy of appeal to emotion – but as far as fact, they do very little at progressing knowledge.