PETA thinks Ben & Jerry's should use breast milk

PETA has done more than their share of good things to help prevent and to stop animal cruelty. Even if people don't agree with their methods, their aim is often good. But this time, I'm not sure just what their aim is. They are now taking issue with Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Ben & Jerry's? Why? Because they dare to use cow milk in their ice cream. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman. PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.
Does PETA have a suggestion about how Ben & Jerry's would get this human breast milk? Nope, just that they should use it. PETA should have had some intern do some research on Ben & Jerry's to find out just how terrible a company they are. If they had here's what they would have found out.


They use hormone-free milk in their ice cream. They started the The Dairy Stewardship Alliance (DSA). It's a collaborative effort between Ben & Jerry’s, the University of Vermont’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery and the State of Vermont Agency of Agriculture since 2003.
The goals of the DSA are to:
1. Provide a foundation for further development of programs that promote sustainable practices. 2. Provide information to farmers about sustainable dairy farming practices.
3. Provide an on-farm self-assessment tool designed to enable farmers to more efficiently assess the social, environmental and economic aspects of their farm operations.



They are supporters of Priority Pie, which urges Congress to redirect spending priorities to invest more in America’s children instead of leading the world in nuclear weapons spending.


They oppose meat and milk from cloned animals for human consumption because of the broad range of concerns about cloning technology voiced by citizens, consumers, scientists, farmers and animal welfare advocates(like PETA). They even have a slogan;"Doesn't every cow deserve the chance to be herself?"


They are a leading supporter of small and mid-sized farms all across the US, not just in Vermont where they are located.

Like I said, an awful company with a terrible record of cruelty to animals. And in their statement to PETA, they treat the issue with all the seriousness it deserves. "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child."

Here is the letter from PETA to Ben & Jerry's:


Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Cofounders
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc.
Dear Mr. Cohen and Mr. Greenfield,
On behalf of PETA and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to bring your attention to an innovative new idea from Switzerland that would bring a unique twist to Ben and Jerry's.
Storchen restaurant is set to unveil a menu that includes soups, stews, and sauces made with at least 75 percent breast milk procured from human donors who are paid in exchange for their milk. If Ben and Jerry's replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers-and cows-would reap the benefits.
Using cow's milk for your ice cream is a hazard to your customer's health. Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer. 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.
Animals will also benefit from the switch to breast milk. 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 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.
And of course, the veal industry could not survive without the dairy industry. Because male calves can't produce milk, dairy farmers take them from their mothers immediately after birth and sell them to veal farms, where they endure 14 to 17 weeks of torment chained inside a crate so small that they can't even turn around.
The breast is best! Won't you give cows and their babies a break and our health a boost by switching from cow's milk to breast milk in Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President



PETA, please stick to your original mission, and support worthwhile causes.