Breastfeeding Woman in Video Proclaims, ‘Go Vegan to Support All Mothers’

New Mother Michelle Weinhofen Teams Up With PETA to Make Powerful Anti-Dairy Plea Ahead of World Breastfeeding Week

For Immediate Release:
July 31, 2018

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Just ahead of World Breastfeeding Week (August 1–7), PETA is releasing a brand-new video showing vegan influencer and new mother Michelle Weinhofen breastfeeding her baby while encouraging people to support all nursing mothers—including the cows whose calves are taken away from them on cruel dairy farms—by steering clear of dairy “products” and going vegan.

“Many women choose to feed their babies with the milk their body produces, but cows who are exploited for their milk are not given that choice,” says Michelle in the video. “I would be devastated to have my child taken away from me—I can’t even begin to imagine what that would feel like—but that’s what happens to mother cows on dairy farms.”

Michelle encourages everyone to support the bond between mothers and children of every species by refusing to drink cows’ co-opted milk: “Cows make milk for their babies just like I make milk for my baby,” she says. “Go vegan to support all mothers.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—notes that humans are the only animals who drink the milk of another species and who drink milk beyond infancy. In the dairy industry, cows are repeatedly and forcibly inseminated on what the industry itself has called a “rape rack.” Their babies are taken away from them shortly after birth so that humans can drink the milk that was meant for the calves, and mother cows have been heard calling for their stolen infants for days after separation. Male calves are often shipped off to be killed for veal, and females face the same fate as their mothers: to be used as milk-producing machines until their bodies give out and they’re slaughtered for cheap meat.

PETA’s previous pro-breastfeeding efforts include enlisting PETA pal Pamela Anderson to write to the World Health Organization in opposition to the dairy industry–backed U.S. government’s attempt to derail breastfeeding in developing countries, as well as moving to place its Jesus-themed “Breast Is Best” ad at a public pool where two nursing mothers were harassed.

PETA offers free vegan starter kits, which are full of delicious dairy-free recipes, on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org.