Dear PETA
I have long been supportive of
your movement’s efforts of highlighting the plight and conservation of animals
across the world and your attempts to bring about justice for the voiceless.
Even though at times, your efforts boarder on the side of fanaticism, I have
still believed in your overall goal of bringing attention to the inhumane way
we treat animals.
Today, however, I was angered,
very angered to see that there is a report circulating on the internet that you
are behind a campaign that draws and links to autism and dairy foods in
children’s diets.
You might wonder why I am so
angry, well, please, let me tell you why. I am actually disgusted in your
attempt to draw the faintest of lines to the cause of autism being related – in
any way – to diet, let alone one including dairy, which really only serves as
propaganda to further your organisations lifestyle beliefs.
Firstly, I would like to draw
your attention to the actual advertisement and the implication that is made by
the simple image of a sad face made out of cereal in a bowl of milk and the
words “Has your child got autism?”
OK. Take it from me; autism is not something to be sad about. Yes, the initial
diagnosis is difficult and can be sad, but many, many, many hundreds of
thousands of children and their families not only accept an ASD diagnosis, but
go on to live full and happy lives. You imply, at the expense of helpless
children and their parents (some of whom are looking for anything to “cure”
their children and are innocently ignorant themselves). By using a sad face,
you are saying that Autism is in fact something that is sad, very sad, and that
the reason for that is because they ate dairy products.
I can’t tell you how wrong this
is. How ignorant. How much it breaks my heart.
I wonder about this. One of the
most “famous” Autism activists is Temple
Grandin . Have you heard
of her? Have you seen that brilliant telemovie with Claire Danes? Well that
woman has helped to improve the slaughtering process of cattle. She said that
her autism helps her to see the way that animals do. Yes it’s still about the
slaughter of cattle (lets be honest, not everyone will be a vegan or vegetarian
– so cattle will always need to be slaughtered) which you’re opposed to, but
she created a process that allows cattle to move freely and humanely through the slaughterhouse.
Surely, as advocates for the humane treatment of animals you would congratulate
and support this? Do you think that she is sad because she is autistic? I
wonder how things would be if she didn’t have it. Would someone else have been
able to come up with this?
When she was inducted into the
Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, this was said bout her:
““At CSU, we join in applauding Dr. Grandin’s contributions to our world.
She has helped open minds and open doors for other people,” said Craig
Beyrouty, dean of the
Then there is Einstein, Sylvester
Stallone, Dan Ackroyd, Bill Gates and recently, Daryl Hannah who are all on the
Autism spectrum. My question to you is, are these people sad?
Then there is the question, “Has
your child got autism”, as if it was something that can be caught, like a
common cold. Autism is not something you can catch, nor is it something that
can be healed, cured, or eradicated. You cannot lose it, remove it with surgery,
can’t hide from it or even hide it. By all accounts, autism can not be treated as if it is an
illness like the common cold. After years and years of research, people in the
neuropsychological, psychological – hell, the MEDICAL fields have only
determined that behaviours can be managed with intervention and lots of hard
work.
Asking if your child has “got” autism
is like asking if they “got” lice. It is insensitive. You don’t GET autism, yet
somehow, your ad suggests you can, simply by eating dairy. If people who saw
this ad did not bother to follow through on your invite to review the research,
then you really are saying that children who eat dairy can get autism or you
can get autism because of dairy food.
What about adults? What about
you? How many people that work for PETA have autism? Surely you all ate high
dairy diets as children before you became Vegan? So then, how many of you have
got autism?
The image and wording of this ad,
just based on this alone, proves your ignorance in relation to autism spectrum
disorders, but then, then we need to address the “research” (if you can even
call it that) that you have used as the foundation of your campaign to stop
people eating dairy food, because it can give you autism. What. The. Fuck?
The disgusting thing is that you
are using research that is baseless and has been debunked. You are essentially
lying just to promote your agenda of Veganism. Why would you do that? Why do
you need everyone to follow a vegan lifestyle so much that you would use
research that was actually proven to be
false as the basis for your argument? Do you look down upon those who eat
dairy so much that you would waste money, a lot of money to promote this
fallacy and scare unwitting and confused people into thinking that by giving
their children dairy, they could be giving them autism?
The research wouldn’t even
qualify as standard research. A case study of 30plus people is surely not
enough to base a case on? And what kind of science was it really? What were the
parameters, what was included? What was not included? Was it all dairy or just
milk? Where did these children sit on the spectrum? Were they verbal or non-verbal?
What were their behaviours like before hand? How long did it go for? What was
used to test the change in behaviours?
Did you think to look into this?
Then you use anecdotal evidence
to support your case. What, did you just ask around the office and gather some
thoughts? Did you post a survey somewhere with surveymonkey? It’s almost an
admission that the research was so flimsy that you needed to use anecdotal
evidence to prop it up.
It is so hard for parents that
have children on the spectrum. Not only are you spending time blaming yourself,
you are looking at everything else there is in the environment that could be a
mitigating factor or cause. And there is so much confusion. The information
that is out there is both contradictory and ignorant. What I know first-hand is
that what is right for my own autistic son is not right for the next person.
Diet may work for some kids, but it won’t work for others. The fact that there are
127 different aspects of autism means that there is not one solution nor is
there one specific reason for it.
And to prove my point, you only
have to look as far as Jenny McCarthy and the anti-vacc bandwagon. We’ve seen
how one person’s belief can change many hundreds of thousands of opinions
regarding vaccinations causing autism. How a sometime celebrity was able to get
traction on this considering she was not a doctor is beyond me, I suppose there
was some heartfelt passionate bandwagon jumping and a pretty face to the cause
and she even got a doctor got on board, but the reality has shown that there is
in fact no direct correlation between vaccinations inducing autism. But it’s
too late for all those who believed this myth. The fear-mongering has been
detrimental to the health and well-being of so many children that now there is
a rise of measles and mumps, illnesses that were practically wiped out. And this
fear-mongering is perpetuating the belief in society that there is something
very wrong with autism, or people who are on the spectrum. Which is simply
discrimination and I ask the question, Is that how you want to be seen in 10 years’
time when they work out that changes in diet have no direct relationship to
causing autism? I’m pretty sure you will regret publicising this lie and I
hope, I sincerely hope you are held accountable.
Autism is a neurological
disorder. The sooner people accept this and work on ways to improve early
intervention, like speech therapy and occupational therapy the sooner children
and their families can begin the journey of acceptance. We also need to promote
change of societal opinion and generate acceptance towards autism and other
neurological disorders. This way, a person who is on the autism spectrum can live life in the way they see as normal and not fear judgement from the
ignorant.
Your site encourages people to
live a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle and the anecdote used mentions how a mother
switched from soy to dairy and then back to soy once she thought she “had
nothing to lose” to try and rid her child of ear infections (completely unrelated
to autism, but you somehow imply it is an “effect of autism”). She goes on to
describe the miraculous recovery her child had at the change in diet – at 11
months she eliminated diary entirely from her child’s diet. Seriously, this is
drawing a very, very long bow, can you now please explain how, if this science
is correct, the masses, the absolute billions of people on the planet, so many
more have not succumbed to these “effects” of a diet high in dairy?
I am afraid your fundamentalist
views would have all humanity eating a vegan diet. I am not saying it can’t be
done, I lived a vegetarian lifestyle for nearly 10 years, however, I would
never consider raising an infant or young child on it. It may be ignorant on my
behalf, but I cannot see the benefits of imposing my adult choices upon a child
and brainwashing them systematically about the reasons why they can’t eat meat,
drink milk or have ice cream.
It has been well documented how dangerous
it is for a young child to live on a vegan diet, hell, parents were sentenced
to prison for doing so in 2007. Is this really the way you want people raising their children?
I am so
bitterly disappointed at your weak argument. My son is on the spectrum, we have
good days and bad days and then we have some very, very bad days. Guess what?
He hates almost all dairy food except cheese and yogurt. Guess what? His
behaviours are no different when he eats it as to when he doesn’t. In fact, we
know that a diet high in sugar can in fact cause more behavioural extremes, yet
not always.
I compel you to remove the
billboard and any relating links, information and propaganda from your website.
You also need to make an apology for spreading not only misinformation, but
lies to further your cause of Veganism. You then should consider making a
donation to a cause that helps parents and their children on the Autism
spectrum. Perhaps you could ask P!nk, one of your staunch supporters how to do
that.
Please,
stick to what you do best, liberating animals, unless one of you is a
neuroscientist, or doctor or someone who actually knows what they are talking
about.
The world full of
fundamentalists. You are entitled to your belief, opinion and you are entitled
to speak freely, but I think you have an obligation to ensure that when you are
talking about something you know little about, that you research the facts
before rushing to spend money on a billboard that is downright offensive to the
many people who live with autism.