Dear Editor,
In response to your opinion piece “PETA’s complaints to ice cream company an embarrassment” (10/7/08), it was disappointing to read Mr. Johnson’s reaction to our tongue-in-cheek letter to Ben and Jerry’s, asking them to substitute breast milk for cow’s milk. We agree that using human breast milk to make ice cream is absurd. What is more absurd, however, is using a different species’ breast milk for nourishment.
As Johnson points out, cows, like all mammals, 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 and being forced to produce 10 times more milk than they would naturally, their exhausted bodies are turned into hamburgers or ground up for soup. Furthermore, using cow’s milk in ice cream, cheese and other products is hazardous to human health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity and prostate and ovarian cancers.
Thankfully, finding substitutes for dairy products (besides human breast milk) has never been easier. Choices like soy or rice milk can be found at virtually every grocery store (including Wal-Mart), and brands like Tofutti stock dairy-free cheeses, ice cream, sour cream and virtually every other product imaginable. Indeed, there’s never been a better time to give cow’s milk and other dairy products the boot. For more information, visit www.peta2.com to request a free dairy-free vegetarian starter kit, as well as stickers and a DVD.
Ryan Huling
college campaign coordinator, PETA