I agree....the whole thought process is completely assinine actually.

[Falls Over Laughing]. They're crazy! As always...

Haha.. a customer told my coworkers about this during work today.. Just to find out its true.. Priceless. XD I'm amused. PETA is a bunch of crazies.

Why is everyone saying human breast milk should only be for their own kids yet doesn't think the same about cow's milk, which is meant for her calves, not for humans or other animals...

Eh, I don't think it's really gross you drink your own breast milk or someone close to you... Is it really more gross to consume human milk made for humans than to consume the processed, pasteurized milk of a captive, multi-stomached hoofed ungulate who is kept producing it unnaturally and has it pumped on an assembly line for mass consumption?

But this is just PETA trying to stir up publicity. There aren't enough breastfeeding women to provide milk for any sort of commercial usage like that, and as has been said already in this thread, there's health concerns with it - not only do whatever toxins you're consuming go along in the milk, but infections can too. Unless you regulate the women providing it like you do dairy cows, there's no way this would work.

Besides - if you're nursing and you have excess milk enough that you really could provide someone with a decent supply, don't give it to Ben and Jerry's... most major cities have milk banks where you can donate the milk. It's given to premature babies and cancer patients and provides a much better benefit to them than to anyone else who might end up with it.

When my sweater puppies start making boob-juice, I'm totally seeing if I can make a nice breast milk cocktail though. What kind of liquor goes good with breast milk? I'm thinking a nice rum would be nice. Or, ooh, Bailey's.




It can be for women who cannot produce enough milk, but more often it's for women who can't/won't breastfeed for one reason or another. There can be issues with the baby latching on properly to get enough milk, inverted nipples, infections, the baby developing breast milk jaundice, babies being born premature before the mother is producing... and, of course, there's a lot of women who seem to think the whole idea is gross and will make their boobs sag - ignoring the fact that it's the breast growth during pregnancy that causes that, not breastfeeding - and that it's quite natural and normal. [/tangent]

That is disturbing on so many levels it's not even funny. Eww...

PETA drives me nuts with their so called animal protection. Do they not understand that if a cow isn't milked, it hurts the cow?

Personally I like the faction of PETA that stands for "People Eating Tasty Animals". :D

Not to mention that dairy cattle have been bread for hundreds of years to produce milk for mass consumption. If Ben and Jerry's wanted to use human breast milk instead of cow milk, we'd have to waste hundreds of years of selective breeding to produce a decent amount of "dairy humans" for mass consumption. Not to mention that the process sounds less humane than milking the cows we already have.

The more I here about PETA's farming practices, the more convinced I become that every single one of them are raised in a city and only see pictures of farms in childrens books. Where I grew up, cattle were our next door neighbors. And I had no problem that these animals were the future Big Macs of America.

Only if the cow doesn't have a calf to drink the milk and is kept producing the milk unnaturally for the dairy industry. If nature was allowed to take its course, the calves would drink the milk, wean naturally, the milk would dry up, and the cow would stand around doing whatever it is cows do when they're not breeding (advanced nuclear physics, I assume). Which is probably part of PETA's whole reasoning behind it - they don't want there to be dairy or eating cows... What we're meant to do with all those millions of cows if they're NOT being kept for dairy or meat... probably euthanizing them and throwing them in dumpsters like PETA does with the pets they collect.

Thankyou for that mental image *imagines the back pain*

On topic, I think that this is about as rational, practical and well thought out as most of PETA's other campaigns. 'Nuff said really.

that's abit weird.. :Z

like dlisted i usaly defend pets [ im vegan... i guess it kinda goes hand in hand... ] but this time i think they have deff gone too far. like i would like it if they put soy or rice milk as apposed to cows milk in the icecream/soups ect. but breast milk.. common now thats a little nutz even for peta

Damn I'm stupid, this didn't even occur to me! But yes, how on earth are we meant to be strict about consumption of our milk if we are filled to the brim with so many different chemicals?

Oh come on... lighten up... I'd give it a taste

Just a thing here. Isn't anyone offened that they basically compared women to cows?
It's simple, we women aren't stupid enough to let someone stick a milker to our tits and it stuck.

Really?

Hallelujah! The breast pump thing aside (which doesn't involve anyone else but the mother, I gather?) we don't exactly... farm women for breast milk, and if that's not what they're suggesting, where on Earth are we going to get the breast milk from? Also, if this ridiculous idea is considered seriously, most lactating women have babies to feed... the only way we'd be getting mass breast milk is to make women undergo hormonal therapy to harvest their breast milk?

Added to that, can I just put in my personal opinion that this is just... ew. Human breast milk for industrial consumption? I just find it's socially wrong, if anything. Okay, the point that we seem to have little trouble drinking cows' milk and we shouldn't feel so bad about human breast milk is a good point, but we've been conditioned to believe that breast milk - if the mother chooses to breastfeed her child - is for a very set purpose - it provides immunity, a particular diet for the infant. Why do adults need this?

I have often referred to myself as a milk cow...lol..............if you have nursed you would understand...lol....but yeah, its just not a practical thing to do...the whole concept....and I know you have all mentioned that toxins and whatnots get into the breastmilk, well the breasts also have an amazing way of kinda cleaning the milk as well.....its still pretty pure for the baby unless someone is using crack or drinkiing whiskey.....not as much "toxins" get ino the milk like you would think. And ice cream just wouldn't be ice cream without dairy from cows, its just diferent...the consistency, everything...
yeah, so basically breastmilk is for babies, period and cows milk is for cows and human consumption as well....both milk but both different...

Not what I ment at all. A milker's for like mass production. Breast pumps are for your baby.

The thought of adults consuming breastmilk is disgusting. Now PETA sounds like a bunch of disgusting people sipping on breastmilk. *bleh*


-That is just my personal opinion. It's possible that they are not disgusting at all- :P

I wouldn't drink human milk, but I think it's a psychological thing as to why I wouldn't, and why so many others wouldn't.
Animals are meant to drink the milk of their own species. Us drinking cow milk all the time is probably stranger than switching to drinking human milk. Wouldn't you think it's weird if a cat dined on a dog's nipples? That's what we're doing more or less.

ETA: Just thought of something. After a certain age, animals stop drinking milk from their species, and unless cow milk is made available to them, never drink milk again. Perhaps we should follow suit, and cut milk from our diets completely. We're not babies!

I continue to find it amusing that so many people think drinking human breastmilk is horribly disgusting, yet drinking cow's milk is normal.

jenny - The body does filter out a lot of toxins just naturally, but there's also a lot of stuff that gets through. All manner of things can still get through - there's a reason that many medicines cannot be used by lactating mothers - because it gets into the milk. Viruses - including HIV - can also be transmitted. Milk can be treated in ways that reduces the risk of viral infection, but there's plenty of things that many people do (drinking, smoking, etc.) as well as things you wouldn't expect such as allergens (infants with a peanut allergy can have an allergic reaction just from drinking breastmlk from a mother who has consumed peanut products) which cannot be removed by treating the milk. Most mothers who are careful about their health are obviously going to take good care of themselves - not drinking, smoking, watching what medicines they use, maintaining a good diet, etc., but for any sort of mass consumption, there's no way to regulate a person's life to the degree you can a dairy cow's to ensure the milk would be safe. Beyond the fact that it's just impractical and would make no sense and is just a publicity ploy for PETA.

mbunnell - It's still pumping out the milk though - and it could be for someone else's baby. Or cancer patients. Or for making ice cream. Or for making soup and sauce with. Or for making a delicious breast milk and Bailey's cocktail. PETA's point is not that women are cows for the pumping but that we shouldn't be using cows for mass-producing milk for our own human consumption. It's just a roundabout and rather silly way for them to put it.

Heh heh I don't find that weird at all. Then again I have a dog and cat that do that only in reverse...

Well actually there are alot of animals out there that can nurse other animals, most recently in the news a Golden Retriever nursing white tigers...(very cute)...and when it comes down to it, most humans can't digest cows milk very well at all, they say after the age of 3 we really don't need milk period. You can get tons of calcium from plant sources etc.....milk just tastes good, and especially in ice cream, but can mess up your digestive system. (sorry, slightly off-topic) and HP, yes I do get what you are saying...I had to be very careful but tried to not be too anal about it..but yes, the idea is totally impractical and I think PETA is just making a statement.

Well, I never meant to say it was impossible for animals to nurse off other animals, but in the animal's young life, in the most simplistic biological "supposed to", it drinks milk from it's mother and then stops drinking milk unless there's some lying around. Do full grown cats feed off the milk of mother cats? I don't think so. (Correct me if I'm wrong...)

They do like and drink milk, though. However often cow milk isn't good for their digestion, so you can buy special cat milk at the pet shop (I do for my cat). So yes, humans aren't the only ones who drink (other species') milk as adults.

Personally I wouldn't want breastmilk ice-cream. I have been told by various people that breast milk, while good for babies, isn't what we're used to and a lot of people don't like the taste. I can't say I've tried it, then again I also really dislike cow milk. I do love ice-cream though and maybe different milk wouldn't necessarily make it worse, there is that strange social reluctance that would come from it in my case, as I couldn't help myself wondering who the milk came from, whether they were healthy, and so on. Probably a silly thing to think but hey, as far as I'm concerned, cow milk works fine and it is produced safely without harming them, why the need to farm women instead?