PETA Blames Milk For Causing Autism

Posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Sharon is angry, and with good reason.

Read about it HERE

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27 Responses to “PETA Blames Milk For Causing Autism”

Kae Verens
October 7th, 2008
As the father of an autistic son, I am actually quite angry at most articles and opinions about autism, which treat the autism itself as a disease and try to “cure” it by changing diet or forcing behavioural or chemical regimens on them.

Autism is not a disease, and does not need to be treated. You should not punish an autistic child by forcing them to undergo “treatment” of a medical or behavioural kind, when all they need is a little calmness and order around them.
As an aside, I believe the real disease is modern life, which is so hectic and confusing that it is no wonder a young child would get lost in it.

My son is incredibly intelligent, proving literary skills at 2, math skills at 4, and ongoing drawing skills. I would be very very annoyed at anyone that tried to “cure” him of his extraordinary skills, even though I do recognise that he has some difficulty with other more-social skills (don’t we all?).

OK, some autistic kids need a little more help than others, but even in the most extreme cases, I think the solution is to reduce stimulus - not to drug the kid.

Sorry - this is all just opinion, but I’m pretty angry about any attempt to justify chemical treatment of children without proven cause, and also pseudo-scientific “proofs” of autism causes.

hmm… seem to have lost the plot there a bit. anyway - the point is that PETA and other similar groups should not go about describing what could potentially be a liberating and extremely useful “disability” as devastating. Autism does not need to be cured - it needs to be understood and worked around.
manuel
October 7th, 2008
i hate peta and as a result of this hate i shall eat more meat tomorrow…..lots more……a noahs ark of food to be precise…..
Rob
October 8th, 2008
I hardly eat meat at all, because of the taste (that’s my quirky way of deciding whether I should eat something or not)

PETA are a shower of cunts, and them coat-tailing on this to save a few lab rats is exactly the type of behaviour I expect from people who use Pamela Anderson as a spokesperson.
Bock
October 8th, 2008
I’m desolate to know that Bill Maher is involved with PETA, though that won’t stop me watching him or agreeing with other things he says.
Rob
October 8th, 2008
…when a fucking polar bear chairs the first meeting of Wildlife for the ethical treatment of humans, wake me up. Otherwise, we’re top of the fucking food chain.

Rover, sit the fuck down and try this new mascara I am working on (kidding)
Bock
October 8th, 2008
Why are you kidding?

In America, a pit-bull can wear lipstick.
Sharon
October 8th, 2008
Thanks very much Bock for sharing the link. PETA are tossers, who care nothing about how people are treated and who have hassled people with breast and prostrate cancer, among other things, in previous ads about the “dangers of milk.”

Thankfully, the advertisement company have taken the billboards down now, but PETA are still insisting that they’re in the right. So it still helps if you sign the petition to let PETA know what idiots we think they are.

Kae Verens, you might like the blogs here.
Kate
October 8th, 2008
Peta operatives spend their time floating about the Internet posting authoritative sounding but complete unproven nonsense on blogs and boards related to both nutrition and health, usually without saying who they are or what their real agenda is. I’ve had breast cancer and I am sickened by their posting on various related fora, where they barely stop short of saying it’s all our own fault cos we ate dairy/meat and that forgoing them is our only hope for recovery. If we eat a steak we deserve to die is basically how they see it.

Some have reached positions of being respected (by some) authorities on nutrition, when healthy eating is not what they are interested in at all, I’m thinking of the likes of Dean Ornish, who is regularly trotted out to give his opinion as a supposedly independent nutritional expert. He is a Peta god. He it was who came up with wonderful stupid theory that “”Eating meat causes impotence because it blocks the arteries to all vital organs, including the penis.”. What can you say? His view of nutrition simply disregards or rubbishes any research that says meat/dairy etc is less than poison and implicates them in just about every ill known to man.

They make me sick the lot of them. I have no tolerance for those who treat people with the sort of contempt (or in the case of preaching their bankrupt doctrine to sick people, pure cruelty) that they do in the name of animal welfare.
EssoDee
October 10th, 2008
I don’t know much about PETA, and am not a biochemist, so I don’t know if they are cunts etc, or if cows milk (or vaccines for that matter) causes autism. What surprises me most is how you all seem to know that cows milk doesnt cause autism. If PETA says it, it must be lies, is that it? As far as I know conventional medical science haven’t a clue what causes it, correct me if I’m wrong.

Kae Verens, that’s an interesting post. Can I ask you, and I ask this genuinely, not combatively, if someone told you tomorrow they could eradicate your sons autism, and with it all the skills you mention that presumably are due to his autism, would you tell them to go ahead, or not?

thanks
Seán.
Kae Verens
October 10th, 2008
EssoDee, in all honesty, I would not change him. He’s happy enough as he is, and I don’t forsee any problems for him at all in life.

When you think about it, autistic traits can be an absolute boon when it comes to modern life. Jareth can read and do maths as if he was a few years older, and his drawings are complex - he uses perspective, and draws actual separate frames of stories (visiting castles, etc). (here’re some from when he was 3)

To replace all that happy person who has potentially amazing life-skills with a normal child, probably happy as well - seems like a bit of a “downgrade” to me.

See I think the problem is that when people talk about curing autism, they don’t actually ask the kid whether he/she thinks that’s a good idea.

In extreme cases, where the child is totally locked in, then maybe there is a case for treating it, but in cases such as “aspergers” or “high-functioning” autism, all that’s needed is to understand the kid’s behaviour and help him/her to integrate.
Kate
October 11th, 2008
EssoDee

“What surprises me most is how you all seem to know that cows milk doesn’t cause autism.”

I don’t see anyone saying that. What is completely wrong is for PETA, or anyone, to go around claiming a cause and effect between milk and autism (or meat/milk and breast cancer) when there is absolutely no evidence that such a connection exists.

The reality of most such conditions is that there is almost never a simple cause-effect relationship. Multiple factors interact to create the condition, and these may well be different in each individual. Even where there is clear causation - for example with smoking and lung cancer - there is huge individual variation in response to the causative agents.

While scientists continue to research and publish papers they accumulate all sorts of often very esoteric data, very often without knowing how it will eventually fit into a larger picture - or even if it will. But little pieces of this data taken in isolation can give an extremely warped picture. It’s a constant pain in the side of researchers - they publish something and one or other interest group latches onto it and uses it in a way that is not actually supported by the research. Easily done - few people who read the headlines go back and check the source.

PETA don’t want people to eat dairy products and meat on ethical grounds - they are perfectly entitled to take this view and to promote it as, when and where they wish provided they remain within the law.

But they don’t stop there, they take untruths and half-truths and build them up in pursuit of their end in a way that creates fear, guilt and inordinate amounts of worry in people who have enough to deal with already. And they do this while deliberately not disclosing their real interest. That isn’t illegal but it is dishonest and for me at least makes everything they say suspect.
Rob
October 11th, 2008
I can’t help remembering an old Spitting Image sketch where animal rights activists were plotting revenge on a scientist

“Kill his kids”

“He doesn’t have any”

“Kill his wife”

“He hates his wife, he’ll thank us for it”

“We should kill his dog, that would send a message to the bastard”

“Agreed”

These people will say anything to further their cause. I love animals, but if one dies, I can be incredibly sanguine about it… how do I live with myself?
EssoDee
October 13th, 2008
Kae, those drawings are extremely impressive. You’ve given me a very different perspective on autism.

Kate, I see your point. I agree there is a difference between urging caution on consuming dairy products in the face of uncertainty as to the causes of autism, and deliberately distorting research with an ulterior motive. The former is fair enough, the latter pretty despicable. Do you know if the talk about links between vaccines and autism is based on ulterior motives, or genuine concern?
C'est La Craic
October 13th, 2008
-kae

Those drawings are extremely good for a lad of three. To me, the detail demonstrates an ability to mentaly visualise things, beyond his age. You must be very proud.
“To replace all that happy person who has potentially amazing life-skills with a normal child..”
Just one question. What’s a normal child ? :)
Kae Verens
October 13th, 2008
@Mssr Le Craic, you’re right - there’s no such thing.

I look at my boss’s kids as they run around slamming into things and being generally noisy and I really am thankful that Jareth is a bit “special” - he likes solitude, practising things he likes (he just figured out how to add simple multi-digit numbers (123+432, for example. 654+567 is trickier) so spends some time doing that), and generally not making a big fuss about things.

If some people see that as something that needs to be “cured”, I really don’t understand those people.

As for Milk being the cause of Autism. My son and daughter were both breast-fed until they were at least 2. My son has had autistic tendencies since well before that. My wife doesn’t drink milk. So, where does that leave the argument?
Bock
October 13th, 2008
You’re lucky to have such a gifted child, but isn’t there also another side to consider?

People with profound autism face huge difficulties in life, especially as their parents grow older, and I imagine those parents might feel less optimistic.
Kae Verens
October 13th, 2008
That is true, and I don’t mean to make out that autism is in all cases a mere nuisance. As I said above, in severe cases, autistic children do need help - they are “locked in” to their own personal environments, possibly because they are over-sensitive to sound, vision, movement, etc, and can’t handle it.

In my case, I’m very lucky that Jareth has Aspergers or high-functioning autism. It means that it takes less effort for him to relate to other people and to learn to handle the influx of data.

More serious cases need more careful handling, and I do pity the parents of those children, because it can be very draining to be so patient and careful all the time.

However, I still think that the answer is to change the environment - not the child. Let the child figure out the environment in its own time. Behavioural and chemical treatments are probably only beneficial to the parents’ peace of mind - not the children’s well-being.
C'est La Craic
October 13th, 2008
Well good for him Kae. Maybe when he grows up he won’t have as much trouble understanding PHP as me. Though, even if he only has high functioning autism, he’s probably already much to sociable to be a programmer !
Sharon
October 14th, 2008
@ Sean, you said, “I don’t know if they are cunts etc, or if cows milk (or vaccines for that matter) causes autism. What surprises me most is how you all seem to know that cows milk doesnt cause autism. If PETA says it, it must be lies, is that it? As far as I know conventional medical science haven’t a clue what causes it, correct me if I’m wrong.”

There is no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism…none! There is plenty of evidence disproving such a link, but obviously, scientists cannot ever say that they have proved without a doubt there is no link, ’cause science doesn’t work that way.
The same goes for the alleged milk-autism link. It’s not bollix because PETA say it’s true, but because there is again, no evidence of a link. No decent, well designed studies have shown such a thing.

“Kae Verens, that’s an interesting post. Can I ask you, and I ask this genuinely, not combatively, if someone told you tomorrow they could eradicate your sons autism, and with it all the skills you mention that presumably are due to his autism, would you tell them to go ahead, or not?”

I’ll give you my take on that question, even though you didn’t ask for it ;-)
My answer is absolutely not. My son is very autistic, and I wouldn’t ever want him other than how he is, because that would be like asking for a different child. I DO want to help him to learn, to continue to increase his communication and socialisation skills, and to learn ways to cope with life with the particular set of challenges and strengths he has.

You also asked Kate about the autism-vaccines link and ulterior motives. I have to say that yes, ulterior motives abound in these discussions. I’m sure you know about Andrew Wakefield and his hunch about the MMR vaccine. Before he’d unleashed hell with his terrible paper and posy press conference, he’d filed a patent application for a measles vaccine to rival the MMR. He’d also tried to show that the MMR caused Crohn’s disease and when that didn’t work he jumped on the autism bandwagon. 11 of the children in that paper were suing the UK government over claims the MMR caused their autism. Wakefield took over £400K in fees from the lawyer leading the MMR lawsuit. He didn’t disclose either of these major conflicts of interest.

The main players in the vaccine scare stories are those claiming compensation for their “vaccine damaged” children. They want money and are not concerned at all with what really happened. There are also a host of dodgy crooks, medics and scientists out there who are only to happy to go along with the charade of autistic children being poisoned or medically damaged (when they aren’t) to ply their trade in dangerous or just stupid and always useless treatments.
Sharon
October 14th, 2008
Bock, you said to Kae, “People with profound autism face huge difficulties in life, especially as their parents grow older, and I imagine those parents might feel less optimistic.”

As the parent of a son who has a diagnosis of classical autism, often called severe autism, I am optimistic. I do not think my son should live with me for all my life. He will always be autistic, though I do not know now just how that will manifest as he gets older. Right now, and I could well be wrong, I don’t think he’d be able to manage to live alone, I think he’ll need some help in ways that most adults don’t, perhaps with his shopping or with house keeping. I know he will have skills to work at something, and hope he will find and employer willing to support him in return for the dedication and focus he would undoubetly bring to his job. Perhaps he’ll fall in love and his partner will support him that way, or perhaps he’ll live in some sort of hall of residence with a warden. I know I need to help him as he is and as he grows, but also keep focusing attention on the needs of adult autistic people, as children like mine will be adults for a lot longer than they’re kids.

Autistic people don’t really sit somewhere along a spectrum from low to high functioning, but they each have their individual strengths and difficulties. Someone may be very intelligent and able to speak well most of the time, but at times of stress they may lose that ability. The may also be unable to cook at any time. Another person might be described as low functioning as they need help to shower and cannot speak at all except through assistive technology, but that person may be an excellent writer and thinker.

Also, Kae, I reject the notion that autistic children are “locked in.” When autistic children are studied, they are seen to make frequent attempts to interact with their parents, but these are often ignored or not noticed.

There was a good article on autism in Wired last spring. I wrote about it here.
Bock
October 14th, 2008
Sharon — It’s probably a matter of degree. I would imagine that some parents are going to feel more optimistic than others about the future, according to how self-reliant their child is likely to be when they’re no longer around to help.
Sharon
October 14th, 2008
I think all parents need to prepare for when they’re no longer around, by preparing their children but also by preparing society. None of us are totally self reliant; I can’t fix my own car, or do my own electrics or plumbing, or grow all my veg. or hunt and butcher animals, etc. But for those who can’t be self reliant in the usual ways (as in cooking, cleaning, self care, employment) they can have just as good a life, even if we have to arrange ways to support them in the areas they can’t manage alone.

Parents have so much to worry about, whether their child is disabled or not. I worry about all 3 of my children, that they don’t get into anything illegal or get hooked on drugs or gambling, that they don’t have a crappy job that destroys their soul, that they find love with decent people who adore them and treat them well, not some controlling freak, that they treat others well and add to this world just by being in it.
I’d rather have a child who needs continence products way older than most than one who with a parole officer and a tracking device on their ankle.
EssoDee
October 15th, 2008
Thanks Sharon. I had looked into the MMR controversy some time ago, and decided the allegations of a link were rubbish, but I cant remember on what basis. Then a few weeks ago the actor Aidan Quinn was on the Late Late I think (I didnt see it myself) and apparently he said that their son developed autism straight after getting the vaccine and there was no doubt in his mind that it caused it. My youngest son is due this vaccine soon, so this kind of put the wind up me again, given that autism appears to be on the rise big time, and no one can explain why. Your info on these charlatans is therefore quite helpful.
Spurwing Plover
October 19th, 2008
Did you hear the latest research it seems that a total vegan diet could cuase brains to shrink which is of course proven everytime we see PETA holding another one of its stupid protests acting so stupid and i say that also gose to all those who promote PETA and their vegan lifestyles
Bock
October 19th, 2008
I heard that a total Vulcan diet makes your ears pointy.
006
November 14th, 2008
fuck off peta….i was BORN with autism you stupid fucks…milk/immunity shots etc. didn’t cause it…like ANYONE in peta hasn’t drank milk before (or chicken abortions aka eggs)…and if its true then everyone in the world should have autism by now…fucking idiots….good luck with the salmonella brocolli and broken femurs when you get older….oh and btw don’t give your autistic children ritalin (thanks retarded 80s doctors) it turns them into zombies….if i had a kid like me i wouldn’t want some ‘cure’ for it either
Bock
November 14th, 2008
Wasn’t there some Star Trek episode where an entire planet was addicted to Ritalin?

PETA Blames Milk For Causing Autism

27 Responses to “PETA Blames Milk For Causing Autism”

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