I just heard a PETA rep on a local radio talk show, and I have a couple of questions. Is it true that humans are the only animals who drink the mammalian secretions of other species? Also, is it true that rat secretions are just as nutritious for humans as cow secretions?
Dogs and cats and pigs and I’m sure other barnyard species have been known to suckle each other at times, but humans are the only ones who drink milk in the sense that we have a milk industry. However, thousands of species are blood drinkers.
I’ve got to ask, so what? Humans are also the only species that eats macaroni.
Is blood a secretion?
WAG – I would venture to guess that humans are the only animals that habitually drink the mammalian secretions of other species. There are plenty of documented cases, though where a mother animal “adopts” abandoned offspring of some different species and raises it as its own. You know, the Jungle Book / Tarzan Syndrome.
As to the nutritional quality of rat’s milk, I have no idea. But personally I think it’s pretty irrelevant. How many mama rats would you have to milk to yield a single human-sized serving?
Hmmmmm… mammalian secretions
/Homer
Is the use of “secretions” on your part an attempt to politicize something that should not be in GQ? It’s typically regarded as a weighted word used by PETA wackos, and being that your name is Liberal further adds to the evidence that you’re just trying to stir the pot.
My apologies if I’m wrong.
Well, ants “milk” the secretions of aphids feeding on plants (actually, this is the sugary excrement produced by the aphids). The ants get a nutritious food out of it, disgusting as it may seem.
I anticipate that PETA will now start picketing anthills.
“Wackos” is a weighted word frequently used as a mindless diversion from the question of whether McNuggets are a good enough reason to torture a chicken.
If there’s any pot involved here, it’s calling the kettle black.
I have heard of hedgehogs drinking the spillage from a cow and careless calf’s feeding time. Though the milk is not good for the hedgehog’s digestive system.
It is the exact phrasing used by the speaker.
A man should not apologize for being wrong, but for having wronged another man. All of your suspicions are groundless.
Of interest:
Cats drink cows’ milk. (Of course, we help them get it.)
The use of ‘secretions’ is clearly an attempt to use a dysphemism, a word that makes something sound worse than the usual word. Animal rights people often use these terms; say, ‘slave’ for ‘pet’, ‘torture’ for ‘research’, or ‘diseased animal carcass’ for ‘meat’. (They like throwing in things like ‘rotting’ or ‘diseased’, even if they aren’t actually true, for shock effect.) I guess this appeals to some people on a basic level, but using a different, nasty-sounding word for something doesn’t really change what it is. Besides, these people advocate eating the severed reproductive organs of plants.
A table at the bottom of this page shows the composition of milk from various species of mammals. Note that the composition of cow’s milk is fairly similar to the composition of human milk; there are a number of other species sometimes used for milk which also have similar compositions. Some species have very high proportions of fat or protein, and are probably not suitable for consumption by humans. (They might, for example, cause problems with digestion.)
Looking at the chart, it’s clear that the choice of rat’s milk is entirely because rats are nasty animals, and PETA likes to make emotional, shocking claims about things. Rat’s milk is not similar to cow’s milk, and would have very different nutritional value. Also, some other animals’ milk has similar composition. Would the argument have been as shocking if they had said ‘Cow’s milk has the same nutritional value as goat’s milk’? (That one’s reasonably true.) What about horse milk? Camel milk? Whale milk?
I will apologize for being wrong, because asking a question (rather than making an accusation) doesn’t qualify as wronging someone. So, the one question I asked was adequately answered, therefore sorry for the question.
Heh… point taken. :smack: If this weren’t GQ, though, we could go into the definition of “wacko” and the actions of PETA members and, well, talk about them both 
[QUOTE=Liberal Also, is it true that rat secretions are just as nutritious for humans as cow secretions?[/QUOTE]
of course they are. Just ask Fat Tony 
Check thisout.
Roches: *The use of ‘secretions’ is clearly an attempt to use a dysphemism, a word that makes something sound worse than the usual word. *
Wouldn’t it be a tad oversensitive to object to the word “secretion” for milk? Milk is a fluid secreted by female mammals from their mammary glands to feed their young. That’s the technical term for it, as, e.g., this breastfeeding glossary makes clear:
“Mammalian secretions” is a rather pompous-sounding scientific way to refer to milk, to be sure, but it’s perfectly accurate, not a dysphemism. Certainly, as far as negative propaganda goes, it’s not in the same league with the use of expressions like “rotting corpse” for “animal carcass”.
Roches: *Rat’s milk is not similar to cow’s milk, and would have very different nutritional value. *
According to the OP, though, the PETA rep didn’t say that rat’s milk had exactly the same nutritional composition as cow’s milk, only that it would be “just as nutritious for humans”., which is so vague as to be pretty much meaningless. What quantities of what kinds of nutrients have to be equal in order to make two foods “equally nutritious”?
PETA certainly do all they can to increase the shock value of their message, but in this case I don’t think anybody’s successfully nailed them as saying anything that’s demonstrably false. (Unless you count the previously-mentioned occasional instances of interspecies nursing as falsifying the first statement, which I think would be kind of a stretch, since they probably mean that only humans habitually drink the milk of other species. And not all humans, either: isn’t the routine consumption of nonhuman dairy products seen as strange, if not downright repulsive, among many Chinese populations who never developed lactose tolerance?)
I wonder why “mammalian” is specified. Is it People for the Ethical Treatment of Mammals now? I must confess a fondness for bee vomit…
PO’F: *I wonder why “mammalian” is specified. *
Well, what other non-human animal secretions do humans routinely consume? Other than your “bee spit” example, and the occasional birds’ nest in East Asia or cow urine for Hindu sadhus, I can’t think of any.
And of course, we consume plant secretions all the time, so just saying “secretions” wouldn’t be specific enough.
It may not be as bad as “rotting corpse”, but I’m sure they are using the word “secretion” to bring across a gross out factor.