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Got beer?
Be kind to a cow and drink a beer
By Christine Morrissey
Art by Sean Craven
It was music to a college student's ears—a public promotion to drink beer!
Unfortunately, the encouragement did not last very long. Before it got its feet off the ground, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' anti-milk campaign, "Got Beer?," was dismantled by angry temperance groups recently. Such organizations as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) cited PETA as promoting underage drinking and drunk driving.
As radical and offensive as the campaign sounded, PETA had its heart in the right place. Their mission, aimed specifically at co-eds nationwide, was a courageous attempt to expose the animal suffering in the dairy industry. Ironically, drinking beer became the compassionate tool to protest against animal cruelty and promote public health. In this case, you need to take off-beat measures, like promote beer-drinking, to make things right in society. The idea is ass-backwards but it encourages people to take action.
PETA was smart to target such an ambitious and idealistic section of society.
College activism is a powerful mechanism.We will never know if this campaign would have been a success people did not give it enough time to grow. The main reason why this campaign did not work was because the opposition did not look beneath the surface of this issue to examine why PETA was really launching such a radical movement. It is very important to look at the facts behind "Got Beer?" From nutritional and animal rights perspectives, milk is a bad product to drink. Today, society is misinformed about its side-effects.
Milk vs. beer
Remember, beer is only healthy if it is consumed in moderation. In many studies, mass consumption of beer has been linked to major health problems.
With that out of the way, let's examine why beer is healthier than milk:
- Beer contains zero fat while milk is full of fat.
- Beer is not contaminated with hormones or antibiotics. But milk is loaded with a wild variety of the pesticides and antibiotics fed to cows.
- Beer has no cholesterol. In every 8-oz. serving, milk holds 20 mg of cholesterol.
- Beer contains only 12 mg of sodium in one serving while milk is loaded with it.
- In every 12-oz. serving, beer holds 3 grams of complex carbohydrates. Milk contains zero complex carbohydrates.
- In every cup, beer contains a half gram of fiber. Milk has zero fiber.
According to the American Heart Association, milk is linked to diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma, strokes, allergies, iron deficiency, and the common cold. Recent studies have also shown that milk consumption may cause osteoporosis.
"It is vital to understand that milk is useless against osteoporosis, so that people will understand what really does help. Milk is no substitute for exercise, avoiding animal protein and sodium that deplete calcium, and other factors," says Neal D. Barnard, M.D., president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Over a 12-year period, the Harvard Nurses' Health Study revealed that milk-drinkers had more bone breaks than women who rarely drink milk.
"Decreasing protein intake from foods like meat and eggs-which leach calcium from the body-is the best way to fight bone loss. And knowing how cows suffer in the dairy industry is enough to make anyone lactose intolerant," says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.
The milk machines
PETA's real motive to get people to wipe away their milk mustaches and instead wear foamy whiskers is rooted in animal cruelty prevention."Horror" is only word to describe the life of a dairy cow. Today, the dairy industry has transformed cows into "milk machines."
The image of a farmer milking a cow in a lofty country-side barn with a silver bucket in hand has faded away. Instead, these cows live in a constant state of misery. Chained by the neck, females cows are warehoused in small, confined crates for their whole lives. They are continuously pregnant in order to keep them lactating so that farmers can rob them of their milk.
In the name of productivity, machines are used to milk the cows' udders, often causing cuts, injuries, and electric shocks. Modern dairy cows produce ten times more milk than they naturally would. Udders, which are genetically manipulated by bovine growth hormones and antibiotics, "sometimes drag on the feces- and urine-covered cement" of their crates, according to PETA.
There is no retirement for dairy cows. After their "usefulness" to the corporations has ceased, they are slaughtered.
"There's no reason to drink cow's milk at any time in your life. It was designed for calves, not humans," says Dr. Frank Oski, the former Director of Pediatrics of Johns Hopkins University.
But, the calves never see their mother's milk. The female babies follow the paths of their mothers in milk production. And the male offspring suffer comparable distress. One to two days after birth, male calves are taken from their mothers. They are either placed in dairy herds or confined to small crates for veal production. For 14 to 17 weeks, the veal calves live in these crates where they cannot even turn their bodies around. From there, the calves are murdered just like their sisters and mommies.
Now, the only ones who enjoy this existence are not the cows but the corporate owners of factory farms. It is a heartless, money-hungry industry that exploits the voiceless masses.
Now, beer stands as a saint among sinners. If a campaign like this or any other comes along again, it is important to examine the facts behind an issue before making a judgment. As was the case for "Got Beer?", millions of lives will be lost because people are not willing to sit down and evaluate the facts.
For more information on this topic, please visit www.milksucks.com or www.peta.com
Copyright © 2000 by Las Positas College Express
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