PETA Demands Renaming World Milk Day To 'Bovine Mammary Secretion Day'

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written a letter to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), demanding that the United Nations (UN) agency rename World Milk Day, celebrated on June 1, to 'World Bovine Mammary Secretion Day'.

The animal rights group said it wanted the agency in charge of the "awareness day" to stop hiding what cow's milk really is and rebrand with a more 'transparent' title.

"As World Milk Day aims, in part, to "spread the word about dairy," we'd like to propose a re-brand which would help you do just this by making clear what the white stuff from a cow really is: change the name of the awareness day to World Bovine Mammary Secretion Day," read the letter by PETA's Vice President of Programmed, Elisa Allen.

"This rebrand reflects the fact that cows don't make milk because they're cows, but because they are mothers. What you call a "global food" is really a food intended for baby cows and bulls only."

PETA argued that the production of milk led to cruelty against the calves, who were separated from their mothers

"Cows' secretions aren't meant for humans any more than those of dogs or cockroaches are, but, thanks to human demand for their mothers' mammary secretions, calves are denied nutrients and the maternal bond forged when a mother feeds her infant."

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The non-profit group said the cows are "repeatedly milked" with as many as 60 per cent of them developing painful udder infection mastitis.

"This infection, coupled with the fact that cows on factory farms often live coated with faeces, explains why a litre of milk can have up to 400,000,000 somatic (pus) cells."

The group added that the dairy industry released massive amounts of greenhouse gases, which led to environmental degradation.

This is not the first instance when PETA has come up with rather odd name ideas. Earlier this year, PETA argued that the definition of 'rat' should be changed in the Cambridge Dictionary. It claimed that the present entry perpetuated harmful stereotypes about the small, furry mammal.

“The derogatory association fuels false perceptions about rats and promotes speciesism – the human held belief that other animals are inferior.”