Half-cocked PETA chicken meat claims refuted

A video posted on PETA’s official Facebook page - accompanied by links to free vegan starter kits - said, “Eating chicken can make your kid’s dick small”.

The 40 second presentation blamed the alleged health condition on phthalates that are chemicals often used in pesticides, paints and PVC plastics, “but now they’re also found in chicken flesh”.

PETA said a recent study showed that a mother’s poultry consumption during pregnancy correlated with her kid’s penis size.

“The more chicken consumed – the smaller the dick,” it said.

“Worried about the size of your kid’s pecker, moms to be?”

“Don’t eat chicken.”

The video’s release coincided with National Farm Animals Day in the US on April 10 to promote animal welfare awareness for the nation’s 9 billion chickens, 244 million turkeys, 93 million cows, 65 million hogs, 6 million sheep and other farm animals; including those in other countries.

PETA used the campaign as an opportunity to say the best way to address the welfare of nine billion plus land animals slaughtered in the US annually was to “go vegan”.

It sparked debate on PETA’s Facebook page with critics saying there was no scientific correlation to back the claims about chicken meat consumption.

But PETA Senior International Media Director Ben Williamson responded to criticism by saying the light-hearted video was a take on what the animal rights group believed was a genuine health risk.

The Australian Chicken Meat Federation said its response to the claims was already addressed in other media reports which stated the 2008 study by the US National Institute of Health referred to in PETA’s allegations, did not mention chicken meat.

The ACMF said it was also unaware of any article that mentioned chicken meat specifically as having a significant relationship with increased exposure to phthalate metabolites.

A spokesperson said the study also indicated the chemicals were ubiquitous and, as stated in the articles on PETA’s allegations, can be ingested through contaminated food and water and absorbed through the skin and inhaled.

The NIH study said phthalates have been measured in residential indoor environments in both house dust and indoor air and in foods, milk and drinking water.

“However, the relative contribution from the various sources and routes of exposure to phthalates is unknown,” it said.

PETA has caused angst among farmers in Australia over an extended period in campaigning emotively against mulesing practices and more recently targeting shearing.

NSW Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm said PETA’s latest campaign against chicken meat was linked to an overall strategy opposing animal use of any kind, including livestock production.

“I’ve read that eating too much tofu can reduce your brain and I think that’s probably responsible for PETA’s problem,” he said.

“PETA’s agenda is to stop human utilisation of animals of any description – for food, for clothing, for recreation and for companionship.

“They don’t actually believe in keeping animals as pets either – that’s their agenda and everything they do is directed at achieving that agenda.”

Senator Leyonhjelm said PETA’s campaigns often neglected to mention its underpinning agenda and instead raised individual points which may have some public support but were always “an incremental step towards their ultimate objective”.

“The public does not agree with PETA’s agenda; it likes having animals for pets, it likes using animals for recreation such as riding horses and the overwhelming majority of Australians prefer to eat meat and that’s not likely to change,” he said.

“The point is in a free society people are entitled to be vegetarians, vegans or to not have a pet, as they choose.

“The problem is PETA want to impose their views on other people and that makes them authoritarian; they do not believe in free choice and they like to make choices for other people.”

PETA Australia’s Campaign Coordinator Claire Fryer said while humorous, PETA’s US video warning potential parents about the link between eating chicken and stunted penis growth had a serious side.

She said chicken flesh had been shown to cause higher levels of phthalate and the meat was also the result of extreme cruelty.

“Last year more than 400 million chickens were killed for their flesh in Australia,” she said.

“Their legs are forced into shackles, their throats are cut, some while fully conscious and they’re immersed in scalding-hot water to remove their feathers.

“Every single animal, whether human or otherwise is capable of feeling pain and suffering and so PETA believes that no animal should be used or abused whether for food, clothing or entertainment.”

Ms Fryer said Senator Leyonhjelm was wrong to suggest PETA was against keeping companion animals and in fact rigorously promoted the adoption of cats and dogs from shelters.

“Mohandas Gandhi, Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein are famous for their intelligence and were all vegetarian - coincidence?” she said.

Last year Senator Leyonhjelm described PETA as “the enemy of the meat and livestock industries” during a blistering Senate speech where he referred to the animal rights group‘s campaign where “I Killed The Prom Queen” guitarist Jona Weinhofen used a foam sheep, cut and bloodied, to stage for a publicity photograph and denounce shearing practices.

“PETA must not only be defeated; it should be destroyed by any legal means available,” Senator Leyonhjelm said.