Last year the PETA-affiliated Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) took out newspaper ads to encourage Atkins dieters to sue doctors whom they consulted about the weight-loss plan. Now the deceptively named “physicians” group has announced it will spend thousands on advertisements trolling for “victims” of lactose intolerance. Why? A big, fat lawsuit.
In all its dire warnings, however, PCRM doesn’t bother to tell us that almost all of these “victims” can drink milk without trouble. And of course, there is a simple way out for those few who do react adversely: don’t drink it, or pick up some readily available lactose-free milk.
All of this is just the latest example of a PCRM tactic the American Medical Association (AMA) denounced over a decade ago:
The general approach used by PCRM takes selective data and quotations, often out of context … In response to a Resolution passed unanimously at the recent AMA House of Delegates meeting, the American Medical Association calls upon the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to immediately terminate the inappropriate and unethical tactics your organization uses to manipulate public opinion.
Testifying before Congress to explain why milk should be in student lunches, Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a Creighton University physician and biomedical scientist who specializes in calcium and bone biology, argued:
I think it is useful to recognize the origin of the anti-milk campaign — and it is literally a campaign. If one checks carefully, one finds that behind most of the stories is an organization called the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and its sister organization, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). These are animal rights organizations that oppose the use of any animal product — leather, fur, meat, or milk.
With its latest anti-milk campaign, PCRM has once again cast out lures in hope of hooking citizens on its animal-rights agenda. Our advice? Don’t bite.
