Home / Weak arguments / A fact with no moral weight
"Not your mom, not your milk."
They bring up a biological curiosity as if it settled the question. What matters is what happens to the animals.
Why it is weak
It's an appeal to nature: it suggests milk from another species is wrong because nature didn't reserve it for us. Natural doesn't define right, and vegans point out this same mistake in "it's natural to eat meat".
The variant "humans are the only animals that keep drinking milk as adults" has the same flaw. Accurate or not, no other animal cooks, gets vaccinated or drinks oat milk, and none of that is wrong for that reason.
Another variant is "milk belongs to the calves". Where the milk "naturally" goes is a weak reason compared with what happens to the cow and the calf: the problem is the exploitation, not who the liquid belonged to.
The phrase also shifts the topic to the purity of the drinker. If someone proves milk is good for adults, it loses its force, and the animals are no better off.
How to say it better
Talk about who pays the price: the cow has to be made pregnant to produce, the male calves are discarded and the cows are slaughtered when production drops.