In its latest campaign to end carnivorism, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has expressed concern that buffalo wings might harm the physical development of the sex organs of male babies.
The radical animal rights group recently sent a letter to Drew Cerza, who runs the Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York, asking him to bar pregnant women from taking part in a wing-eating contest which has been held each Labor Day since 2002.
PETA’s associate director of campaigns, Lindsay Rajt, wrote to Cerza saying “consuming poultry while pregnant may lead to birth defects in utero, including smaller-than-average penises for newborn boys.”
Rajt wrote, “I think we can agree that embarrassment and insecurity are no small matters.” She added, “[E]vidence indicates that heterosexual women’s sexual satisfaction depends in part on their partner’s penis size.”
“Even the cruelest of bedroom ridicule pales in comparison to the suffering that smart, sensitive chickens endure for the wings so casually consumed in contests such as these,” she continued.
PETA has never shied away from offensive advertising campaigns. In 2004, the group launched an aggressive “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign which included the catch-phrase “To animals, all people are Nazis.” And in 2002, the organization ran an ad titled “Fur is Dead” which showed a man beating a woman with a stick for wearing a fur coat.
Women’s Health Mag downplayed PETA’s concern over the connection between chicken wing consumption and penis growth. “The research PETA mentioned from the Study for Future Families didn’t look at chicken consumption at all,” wrote Women’s Health’s Robin Himantel. “It looked at how prenatal phthalate exposure affects boys reproductively in a variety of ways, one of which was penis size.”
Phthalates are a man-made chemical compound found in many consumer products including makeup, shampoo and plastic bottles. Chicken skin also contains phthalates which have been linked by many studies to male reproductive issues.
But Dr. Shanna H. Swan, who conducted the research cited by PETA, told Women’s Health Mag “I think any link between eating buffalo wings — even by pregnant women — and the size of their son’s genitals is very tenuous.”
The Buffalo Wing Festival draws more than 80,000 people each year. World renowned competitive eater Joey Chestnut set an event record last year by eating 191 chicken wings in 12 minutes.
Reached by The Daily Caller News Foundation, PETA said it would offer no further comment on its anti-wing crusade. Cerza didn’t respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment.
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