People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wasn’t winning any friends in Great Britain where it recently premiered a billboard that read: “Feeding kids meat is child abuse. Fight the fat. GoVeg.Co.UK.”
British newspaper The Herald quoted Dawn Carr defending the billboard saying,
There has been a lot of discussion in the Uk recently about the obesity crisis and the campaign points out feeding children cut-up animal parts can leader to cancer, heart disease, strokes, and diabetes later in life.
The Herald quoted two academics, however, who attacked the ad as malicious and extreme. Mike Lean, a nutrition expert at Glasgow University, told The Herald,
Living on a vegan diet is extremely difficult and there has been concern raised about growth blocking and vitamin deficiencies. Meat is a sound source of iron, which effects the way the brain works and the body grows.
Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen University told The Herald,
This kind of campaign might frighten people into taking extreme measures which are simply not justified. A vegan diet is not natural because it does not provide all of the ingredients vital for a normal life.
That last sentence of Pennington’s is too extreme, but taking dietary advice from a group as prone to errors and outright lies as PETA is probably not in the best interest of children.
Source:
Vegan ‘child abuse’ campaign attacked as scaremongering. Billy Briggs, The Herald (UK), September 17, 2002.