However, they've come up with a little advertising campaign which I believe is just as bad as those darned Ransom Notes from NSU! I know this is old (September 29, 2008), but it still needs to be addressed.
Remember the "Got Milk?" advertisements? Well, PETA has made their own little ad, except it's titled "Got Autism?" http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/09/got_autism.php
I am posting the blog entry here. It is in the public domain and I have provided the link above - I want the whole thing to be published here so one cannot say I was picking only the pieces I found offensive:
Parents, heads up. Recent studies have suggested a link between dairy consumption and autism. Since many people don't know this, PETA is planning to run a billboard in Newark, New Jersey. Even though it won't please the billion-dollar dairy industry, parents have a right to know the truth about milk.
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In a study at the University of Rome, researchers noticed a "marked improvement" in the behavior of autistic children who were taken off dairy products, but how dairy might worsen or cause autism is still unclear. Some suspect that casein (a component of cow's milk) harms the brain, while others suggest that stomach problems that are often caused by dairy products cause distress and thus worsen behavior in autistic children.
Not so surprising, considering that milk has already been strongly linked to Crohn's disease, certain types of cancer, and other serious health problems. But I digress.
Thankfully, there is hope. Testimonials suggest that some people with this devastating disease may be able to find relief by simply removing milk from their diet.
There's a whole world of information out there for parents and for women who are pregnant or nursing about how to raise their kids dairy-free. Be an informed consumer and check it out!*The Newark area had the highest rates of autism occurrence among 14 states studied in one report.
Does anyone else find this as offensive as I do?
My primary and usual reason for offense: this is just another negative advertising campaign against autism which does not do those of us on the autism spectrum any favours. It just adds more fuel to the negativity fire that is burning out there which I believe is the cause of some of the problems within families. If you're always told that your autistic child or family member is such a bad person by societies and such, you begin to believe it... and that cannot be a good thing for you, your autistic family member or anyone else for that matter!
The phrase "devastating disease" was enough to raise my blood pressure a few degrees. Can we please stop referring to autism as a devastating disease already???
I am autistic and I can think of many "devastating diseases" that I do not want (Cancer being a big one). Autism is not one of them. All in all, autism doesn't seem to be too much of a problem for me! The way it is portrayed is.
My second reason is that they only quote one case study. It's hardly what I'd call decent empirical evidence to support their claim at all. It is fallacious to just quote one anecdotal study as proof of a theory. I'd need to see more credible references than that.
I will give it credit for being slightly better than one person who once tried to convince me that mercury was the cause of autism by referencing an article in Rolling Stone magazine!
My last entry advised that we should choose our battles wisely. PETA has always carried a reputation for being extreme and somewhat offensive in their past campaigns and I usually just ignore them, but this one struck me personally.
Being the person I am, I wrote a letter of complaint and left it on their blog's comment board. It has to be approved by the moderator, so I doubt it will actually be published. But published it shall be - right here on my blog!
As a person on the autism spectrum, I find this ad to be in very poor taste and offensive. My reason? There is too much negative press out there about autism without this sort of advertising campaign. Does PETA really need to lower themselves to this level to promote going vegan?
I cannot drink milk because I am lactose intolerant (I'm vegetarian too because I cannot digest meat either). Many non-autistic people are lactose intolerant too!
Does the self-esteem of many autistic people need to be further lowered by this sort of advertising? It's bad enough that the autism societies do it!
It's bad enough that we're commonly associated with terror levels, tragedies, bird-flu (yes, I have seen this association), and being soul sucking family-destroyers. We have to live with negative stigma like this every day of our lives.
Does this sort of thing help those of us who work and try to make a daily living with co-workers who only see negative press about autism? I have to hide the fact that I am autistic thanks to this sort of thing.
I'm not against decent research or finding ways to make our lives easier. This, however, does not make being autistic any easier.
I respectfully ask that you please stop contributing to this problem of negative press against autistic people by taking us off your target list. Thank you.
