# Are these PETA claims true? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2005, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168 "2005-04-26T15:50:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/41 "2005-04-26T23:51:10Z")
Would honey count as a “secretion” of another species (albeit not mammalian)? > [@duffer](#): > > Humans are the only animals that _cook_ macaroni. In fact, humans are the only animals that cook their food, period—aren’t they? Humans are the only animals who do lots of things, including worry about the ethical implications of what they eat. ---
**Author:** ![Domokun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Domokun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Domokun)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/42 "2005-04-27T00:08:34Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > And what goes better with drinking hooch than [smoking cigarettes](http://www.local6.com/news/4405879/detail.html)? How is he lighting them? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Domokun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Domokun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Domokun)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/43 "2005-04-27T00:09:58Z")
> [@Domokun](#): > > How is he lighting them? 😕 Nevermind, I’m dumb. Read “hiding them from officials” and pictured him secreting them under his straw. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/44 "2005-04-27T00:50:28Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > 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? Lots and lots of animals will drink the milk of other species, if it’s made available to them. None of them have any good way to acquire it, though, so in the wild you’re not going to see it happen outside of freak occurences. I’m not sure the point would be relevant even if it were true, though. There are lots of behaviours that are unique to humans, and a great many of them are perfectly reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/45 "2005-04-27T01:00:37Z")
Anecdotal evidence ahead. I saw it: Several years ago, my cat gave birth to 4 frisky kittens. When Mom finally said “enough,” the newly-weaned (mostly grown adolescent cats) took to nursing on the dog - long ago spayed and never whelped a litter. She loved the attention but didn’t like the sharp pointy teeth. She let them nurse anyway. Good dog. Yes, she did lactate. No, we didn’t send it to America’s Funniest Home Videos. Kids love milk - they don’t care from whence it comes. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/46 "2005-04-27T01:02:10Z")
> [@Roches](#): > > The use of ‘secretions’ is clearly an attempt to use a dysphemism, a word that makes something sound worse than the usual word. Eh… I’m not sure I buy that “secretions” is a dysphemism. The “rat’s milk” thing, yes , but not “secretions.” What sounds bad about “secretions?” It doesn’t bother me in the slightest to ponder that I enjoy cow secretions in my coffee. They’re trying to generalize across the animal kingdom, so if they were talking about “milk” then they’d be limiting their statement to mammals. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/47 "2005-04-27T01:02:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > “Canola Oil”- now there’s a good example of a “culinary euphemism” ( for rapeseed oil.) Didn’t we just do this? ‘Canola’ is not equivalent to ‘rapeseed’. Canola is a specific variety of rapeseed whose nutritional content has been rather drastically altered from ordinary rapeseed. Canola oil contains no erucic acid. Rapeseed oil does. Canola oil is exceedingly low in saturated fats. Rapeseed oil is not. Canola oil contains Omega-3 fatty acids. Rapeseed oil does not. Given the very substantial differences between Canola and other rapeseed varieties, labelling Canola oil as Canola oil rather than with the more generic term is no more a culinary euphemism than calling Royal Galas ‘Royal Galas’ rather than just apples. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/48 "2005-04-27T02:41:33Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Didn’t we just do this? ‘Canola’ is not equivalent to ‘rapeseed’. Didn’t know that. :smack: Good to know, thanks! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/49 "2005-04-27T02:50:15Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Didn’t know that. :smack: Good to know, thanks! 🆒 Sorry to be snippish. Someone in another thread lectured me on how canola was “just a marketing name” for rapeseed, and I thought it had been you. Now I feel like an idiot. The topic is moderately close to home for me since (a) I live in the heart of canola-producing country, and (b) my uncle was one of the plant breeders who developed canola. ---
**Author:** ![carterba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85e7bf/32.png) [@carterba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carterba)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/50 "2005-04-27T03:49:29Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Is it true that humans are the only animals who drink the mammalian secretions of other species? Why did the rep limit it to mammalian secretions? There’s at least one species of ant that “milks” honeydew from aphids. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/51 "2005-04-27T04:18:32Z")
PETA and any other group who have an agenda to dictate to others what they should and shouldn’t eat (aside from other humans of course) can all go hang for all I care. The use of words such as secretion and torture are deliberately chosen to disgust or offend others. I’m sorry but our treatment of our food is only slightly differnt than other species in taht we domesticate and try to enhance (rightly or wrongly) the size and qualities of our prey. I have watched barn cats play with their food (mice/small birds) in a way which I considered quite cruel but I wasn’t about to get a court order against them nor would I stop them from eating. I’ve seen dogs tear apart a live rabbit. It is horrible but that is life. We can not get sustinance from inorganic material we must consume life to maintain life. Sorry but food is food, meaning that we should not pretend that we hold it on a hogher level than us. I feel no sympathy for a carrot when it is ripped from the ground chopped and boiled. I also feel nothing towards the baked chicken sitting before me except the joy of the aroma and taste. We as a species recognize the impact we make on other species but that shouldn’t change a thing… In so many ways we are no different than any other animal and should stop pretending that just because we understand the consequences of our actions we are different. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/52 "2005-04-27T04:21:50Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > You know, it just occurred to me that an easier way to think about it is, quite simply, that blood is an organ. It makes as much sense to call blood a secretion as it does to call your brain a secretion. Cells in your brain secrete various substances, just as cells in your blood; but that doesn’t make your brain part of the product of its secretory processes. To be honest, I know that blood isn’t a secretion. I should have targeted the question to **daffyduck** who said > [@](#): > > 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 was wondering if he thought that blood was a secretion. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/53 "2005-04-27T04:32:39Z")
Ahh. Well, perhaps it’ll be helpful to **daffy** then. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/54 "2005-04-27T04:41:12Z")
> [@NattoGuy](#): > > Eh… I’m not sure I buy that “secretions” is a dysphemism. The “rat’s milk” thing, yes , but not “secretions.” What sounds bad about “secretions?” It doesn’t bother me in the slightest to ponder that I enjoy cow secretions in my coffee. They’re trying to generalize across the animal kingdom, so if they were talking about “milk” then they’d be limiting their statement to mammals. I think some people don’t really know the distinction between a secretion and an excretion. Even more who read the word only conjure an image of things like snot. I tend to agree that while there’s nothing at all technically incorrect in their usage, I highly doubt PETA is framing things thusly to help the general public come to grips with how delicious a “secretion” can really be. You’ve got a good handle on the subject, but in common parlance, “secretions” are slimey disgusting things you find on slugs sci-fi monsters. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/55 "2005-04-27T05:33:15Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > 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? It’s more like a fetish actually. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/56 "2005-04-27T05:44:38Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > I think some people don’t really know the distinction between a secretion and an excretion. Even more who read the word only conjure an image of things like snot. I tend to agree that while there’s nothing at all technically incorrect in their usage, I highly doubt PETA is framing things thusly to help the general public come to grips with how delicious a “secretion” can really be. You’ve got a good handle on the subject, but in common parlance, “secretions” are slimey disgusting things you find on slugs sci-fi monsters. I guess it comes down to your social conditioning. When I hear “secretions” I think of glands, which serve a beneficial role in the human body, and which produce some valuable and rare substances that we harvest from other animals. Actually the first thing that comes to mind is the character in “The Naked Lunch” milking intoxicating secretions from the alien head/typewriter into a coffee cup as he typed out a manuscript. I guess the fact that I don’t consider this negative really says more about me than anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/57 "2005-04-27T07:11:44Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > If there’s any pot involved here, it’s calling the kettle black. If there’s any pot invovled, I think the PETA people have been smoking far too much of it. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/58 "2005-04-27T10:20:41Z")
Elephant seals come on shore to give birth and raise their pups until they area weaned (for example, at Ano Nuevo, just north of Santa Cruz, CA). Sea birds like seal milk and will peck at the mammaries of the seals to make them express milk. ---
**Author:** ![Arwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Arwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arwin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/59 "2005-04-27T10:56:50Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > 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? I think we’re one of the few who do this habitually without actually killing said mammalians, but keeping them alive for just that purpose. I think if other animals had been devious enough to think of that, they’d be doing the same. If you offer up cows-milk to them, a great number of animals will drink it (including porcupines, rats, etc.) > [@](#): > > Also, is it true that rat secretions are just as nutritious for humans as cow secretions? Why not? The point here is of course that we’ve not been using rats traditionally because they’re a lot harder to keep for this purpose. Cows have been bread over the centuries to give a lot more milk than they would ever need for their calf, and have been bread to give milk even if they didn’t have a calf around (it wasn’t always like that - I think cows normally only gave milk when they had a calf and even then the calf had to be actually there within smelling distance). I’m sure that with modern technology you could develop rats and factories for them so that they can be efficient milk providers. But what’s the point? Europe is already producing more milk than it needs or can sell anyway. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168/60 "2005-04-27T22:26:19Z")
This one is closed as the OP has been answered about as factually as can be. The continuing sidetracking and rants are **just—not—acceptable** in General Questions. **samclem** GQ moderator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-these-peta-claims-true/301168.md?page=2)