IGM PETA and breast milk

IGM
This is about PETA and therefore does not deserve the usual heading and memo format. I have already blocked the source of this, although my brother might have sent a link with the story.
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has released an official proclamation asking (at least I think they asked, but they do a good deal of strident demanding, whining, begging, coercing and confrontational harassing) Ben And Jerry (Of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream—my second favorite kind) to switch from cow’s milk to breast milk. That’s human breast milk.
I assume that in their deluded little world of “Planet Death to Humans” PETA thinks that milking cows is cruel and unusual. True, we are the only creature I know of which continues drinking milk past infancy, and uses the milk of another animal, and I can see some room for a lively debate on those points, but despite those caveats, how is it possible that a group of presumably sane people can come to such a desperately unsane conclusion?
I am familiar with the process of milking a cow. Not intimately, but I have tried it, and been around it off and on. Both my parents did a lot of it in their youth. I’ve never seen a cow behave as if it objected to the milking. Sometimes they kick or bolt, but that is usually because someone had cold hands, or squeezed where they shouldn’t have, or startled the animal. PETA will counter with the argument that commercial dairies lock the cow in a metal cage when they are hooked up to the automatic milking machine. I will counter the counter by saying “are you people complete morons?” They put them in the cages so they don’t wander off halfway through—that might be painful. So they are protecting them, not abusing them. Notice the cows don’t protest the process.
Now, let’s move on to the breast milk part of the proposal. Ben and Jerry’s is headquartered in Vermont. There are about 750,000 people in Vermont. (Yes, I looked it up) I can just picture every lactating female pumping her breasts every day to sell to an ice cream company. (To hell with the kid, we need the money.) I’m sure Ben and Jerry would be willing to pay for such a service. Considering the inconvenience, the stigma, and the tiny amount of milk from each session, I put the wholesale price of breast milk at around $100 an ounce. Probably more. Which would what—triple?—the price of their product. But even if every legal-age female adult in the state regularly sold their milk, (Which is possible, but that’s another story) they would be around a million gallons short. Now the price of breast milk rises to several thousand an ounce. But what woman would do it? Not even the members of PETA. Although Pamela Anderson could make serious bank if she did, and videotaped it.
Ben and Jerry’s response was precious. They essentially said, “What a wonderful and creative idea, but no thanks.”
So why the letter? Two reasons, which are always the same with PETA. The first is political agitation. The second is attention. PETA is, at its heart, a collection of people who believe they are sincere about their cause, but are really just a bunch of sad, pathetic, personality-challenged, socially-inept . . .
No, that’s not fair. They are well-intentioned. But ontologically misinformed. PETA can only happen in the screwed-up, humanist, Godless culture of Hubris Inc. Otherwise known as America, circa right now.
They weren’t serious about the breast milk. They were trying to make a point. As usual the point was ridiculous. Animals have no inherent rights. Which sort of puts the entire reason for PETA’s existence to rest. Only creatures with the ability to cognitively realize the concept of “rights” can have rights. Cogito Ergo sum. Whatever that means.