If there’s one thing that can unite this politically severed nation, it’s a mutual misunderstanding that PETA is simply out of control.
PETA stands for “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,” which sounds like an inarguably awesome thing. But the organization’s history of controversial ad campaigns, supremely bad takes, and focus on the wrong things (like encouraging Ben and Jerry’s touse human breast milk, stealing and killing family pets, and suing a wildlife photographer for taking a photo of a monkey) marks them more as a radicalized anti-human group than a progressive pro-animal group.
They’ve certainly succeeded in some of their fights for animal rights—but not as many times as they succeeded in wasting millions of dollars in what an only be called baffling, useless, and oftentimes harmful public stunts.
That being said, PETA tweeted this today:
Looks weird right?
It's what you're doing if you drink cow's milk ✋ Raise your hand if you know that humans shouldn’t be drinking cow’s breast milk. It was made for their babies—not you!
Art by @choicebison @freebison ? pic.twitter.com/D8QcJnyfUG
— PETA (@peta) March 28, 2019
It’s an image of a cow breastfeeding a man alongside the caption, “Looks weird right? It’s what you’re doing if you drink cow’s milk. Raiseyour hand if you know that humans shouldn’t be drinking cow’s breast milk. It was made for their babies—not you!”
As mentioned, the image banded Twitter together like nothing in the platform’s history ever has. Responses ranged from “Y’all lost ya damn minds” to jokes (?) requesting more detailed images.
Many announced the tweet has done nothing but made them thirsty, like, uh, really really thirsty for a nice tall glass of cold milk.
Some suggested that the image was a confession of the organization’s furry leanings.
(A Furry, for those unfamiliar, is “an enthusiast for animal characters with human characteristics, in particular a person who dresses up in costume as such a character or uses one as an avatar online,” according to Dictionary.com. It isn’t an inherently sexual thing, but there are most def sexual themes present for many involved in the subculture.)
Though mostly, people joked about the undeniable ~feelings~ the graphic evoked in them.
Questions about the cow’s body abounded. Why does she have double DDs? Why does she have human hands? And most importantly, why would the cow be messing around with this old bald dude when she’s clearly way out of his league?
Maybe he’s her sugar daddy?
Would it be fair to say that at this point, PETA is just milking their reputation for bizarro attention-seeking stunts?
Also—Is this how they drink milk in St. Louis?
h/t Twitter