PETA To Mp’S: Stop Treating Kids Like Cows

For Immediate Release:
11 October 2001

Contact:
Dawn Carr – 0208 870 3966

London — PETA has turned its attention from schoolchildren to MP’s in its campaign to sink dairy. To coincide with National School Milk Day, PETA is calling on MP’s to keep cow’s milk out of schools. Citing scientific evidence and the recommendation of top paediatricians, PETA’s letter points to the devastating health effects of dairy consumption, especially for kids.

In the current climate, PETA realized that encouraging kids to talk to strangers by handing out the Milk Suckers cards might create such a panic that their message about the harmful effects of the dairy industry on human and animal health would be lost.

In the letter to MP’s, PETA writes, ‘Our milk addiction is bizarre and unnatural, as odd as encouraging our children to suckle the family dog or to add the mammary secretions of a giraffe to their morning cereal.’

The dairy industry treats cows as nothing more than ‘milk machines’ even though cows give milk for the same reason that all animals do—for their own babies. Because of human manipulation, cows now give 10 times the amount of milk that their calves would drink normally, which causes the animals to suffer from an array of agonising ailments, including unnaturally heavy udders, udder infections and lameness from carrying too much weight for their frames. At a fraction of their natural lifespan (usually around the age of 4 or 5), cows are slaughtered and their bodies incinerated and stored in giant warehouses out of fear that they might have mad cow disease.

PETA cites respected paediatrician Dr Charles Attwood: ‘After seeing two generations of my patients suffer with asthma and other allergic reactions to milk, I’ve come to the conclusion—which is now shared by many allergists—that six out of 10 children are allergic to milk protein.’

‘Giving kids a glass of milk is like handing them a lit cigarette,’ says PETA’s Andrew Butler, father of a 4-year-old vegan. ‘We know that a lifetime of dairy dependence can lead to heart disease, cancer and stroke. Surely our kids deserve better than this.’

PETA’s letter to MP’s follows. For more information, visit MilkSucks.co.uk.