Vegans are wrong about milk

There are good arguments for veganism (frugality, health, kindness to animals, etc.), but I've repeatedly run into a vegan argument about milk that's just ridiculous.

It runs something like this: "Humans are the only animals who drink milk past infancy. They're also the only animals that drink the milk of another species. You are not a cow and you are not a baby and you are drinking COW BREASTMILK. Ew."

Here's why that's dumb:

1) Humans aren't like other species. We're the dominant species on the planet. Other animals don't farm, either, and you don't hear vegans complaining about the oddity of lining up your plants for the slaughter. We have these gorgeous, humongous brains that allow us use all kinds of super-efficient and interesting food procurement methods that just aren't available to other animals. Yes, I'm a human exceptionalist. Deal.

2) The fact that milk is baby food for mammals means milk is a GREAT FOOD. If a mammal - even an immature mammal - can survive on milk alone, it means milk has a lovely balance of carbs, protein, and fat: all three of our basic macronutrients. Exploiting the availability of this superfood in lower species is not weird, it's GENIUS.

3) Cows are not humans. Drinking the breastmilk of another human (unless you're a baby) is weird, because  we generally have taboos against interacting with the bodily fluids of others. But cows aren't human and so those taboos don't apply.

The last one is probably the one that (some) vegans won't give me. But even vegans ingest other lifeforms for their nourishment, and so must admit that the question isn't if you're going to have different rules for different species, just where you're going to draw the line. (Think of all those poor yeast they consume!)

But, seriously, point #1 is my biggest beef (ha) with this argument. If you're going to call every human behavior that doesn't have an analog in the animal kingdom weird and wrong, well . . . planning on giving up that spiffy iPod soon?

-Jessica Snell