PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is known for its in-your-face publicity stunts. One of the most recent was a letter sent to Ben & Jerry's cofounders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield asking them to replace the cow's milk they use to make their popular ice cream products with human breast milk. That would be healthier for customers than “milk that was meant for a baby cow,” the letter explained. It would also lessen the supposed suffering of the cows currently supplying Ben & Jerry's, it added.

Cohen and Greenfield, veteran lefties who know better than to overreact to populist shock tactics, were having none of it. “We believe a mother's milk is best used for her child,” they noted in their tit-for-tat reply.

PETA's idea was prompted by a Swiss restaurant that reportedly has substituted human breast milk for 75 percent of its dairy needs in its soups, sauces and stews. The Storchen restaurant, located in the exclusive Winterthur resort in the Swiss Alps, has been driving local regulators nuts trying to figure out if breast milk could legally be used in commercial applications.

“They are not on the list of approved species such as cows and sheep, but they are also not on the list of the banned species such as apes and primates,” food control lab spokesperson Rolf Etter told the British Telegraph newspaper.

You might want to rephrase that before you go home, Rolf…