PETA wants Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use breast milk

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has suggested that a famous ice cream company replace cow’s milk with human breast milk in its products.

In a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman writes that the suggestion is based on an idea from a restaurant in Switzerland.

Storchen, Reiman wrote, is set to unveil a menu that includes food made with at least 75 percent breast milk. The humans who donate the milk are paid, according to the letter.

“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,” Reiman wrote.

In the letter, Reiman also said that cow's milk is a hazard to the health of the ice cream company’s customers because of the link between the dairy product and maladies including juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, anemia, certain types of cancer and other problems in children.  

Cows only produce milk before and after pregnancy, the letter says. They are forcefully impregnated every nine months in order to be constantly milked, Reiman wrote.

“The breast is best!” Reiman wrote. “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 & Jerry’s ice cream?”

The animal rights group is based in Norfolk.