UPDATE! Out of respect for concerns brought to PETA by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), PETA is pulling the "Got Beer?" Campaign materials from college campuses, notwithstanding the enormously positive response from college students. We will, of course, continue the "Dump Dairy" Campaign but from a different angle, focusing attention on the suffering inflicted on cows and calves in the dairy industry. Check out our new campaign materials HERE . 3/28/00: Click the letters below to view PETA's official response to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD's reply and rejection of $500 dollars in individual contributions from PETA staff members, and PETA's subsequent reply to that rejection.

PETA is urging college students to wipe off those milk mustaches and replace them with ... foam? The largest animal rights group in the world is releasing the results of research showing that beer is actually better for you than milk . PETA is giving away bottle openers that say, "Drinking Responsibly Means Not Drinking Milk—Save a Cow’s Life," to college students who visit www.MilkSucks.com .

The dairy industry spends more than $300 million every year to convince people to drink gallons of the white stuff, but PETA's sentiments are with savvy health officials who warn that dairy products have four major drawbacks. Milk and cheese: 1) are loaded with fat and cholesterol; 2) are frequently contaminated with pesticides and drugs; 3) are linked to diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers; and 4) may even cause osteoporosis , the very disease that the dairy industry loves to use as a selling point in its ads, because the excess protein in dairy products leaches calcium from the bones. (The Harvard Nurses’ Study shows almost twice as many bone breaks among women who drink three glasses of milk a day as compared to women who drink little to no milk.)

Here's why beer is better

A nutritional comparison of beer and milk reveals that:

• Beer has zero fat; milk is loaded with fat .
  
  
• Beer has zero cholesterol ; milk contains 20 mg of cholesterol in every 8-oz. serving.
  
  
• Beer doesn't contain hormones or antibiotics , while milk contains an ever-increasing variety of the pesticides and antibiotics fed to cows, including rBGH, the notorious growth hormone that can give guys breasts .
  
  
• Beer has half a gram of fiber in every cup; milk has no fiber whatsoever.
  
  
• Beer has only 12 mg of sodium per cup. Milk is sky-high in the stuff.
  
  
• Beer has 3 grams of complex carbohydrates in a 12-oz. glass; milk has no complex carbohydrates .

The high animal protein content of milk actually leaches calcium from the bones . In the U.S., Norway, and Sweden—where people consume the most dairy products—women have the highest rates of osteoporosis in the world. Regions of the world where dairy products are not part of the culture, such as China and Japan, are virtually osteoporosis-free.

Many studies have shown a strong correlation between animal product consumption (including dairy products) and breast cancer .

Unless you drink the stuff on your way up Mount Everest, beer won't give you a stroke. However, dairy products contribute to almost every disease except carpal tunnel syndrome, including stroke; iron-deficiency; allergies; cancers of the prostate, breast, colon, and ovaries; asthma; heart disease ; and even the common cold (milk helps promote the production of mucus ).

PETA's main "beef" is, of course, about the treatment of the mother cows and their calves on factory farms. Today's dairy cow is treated like nothing more than a milk machine— chained by her neck in a concrete stall for months, her udders genetically modified to produce so much extra milk that they sometimes drag on the feces- and urine-covered cement. She is kept pregnant by artificial insemination to keep milk production high; her male calves are traumatically taken away from her at 1 to 2 days old and chained inside cramped dark crates to be killed for veal. The milk that is meant for them ends up on our supermarket shelves. There are no retirement homes for dairy cows. When their usefulness to dairy farmers is over, they get shoved into a truck and sent off to slaughter .

PETA’s College Action Campaign coordinator Morgan Leyh counsels, "Colleges have been busy banning kegs from campus. But we say, ‘Ditch the dairy, not the beer!’ "

Of course, while all this is true, PETA recommends fresh juices, soy milk, and mineral water—even soda—over milk or beer.