Oh, PETA. The group never fails to surprise us with its outrageous antics, but this latest one is for the birds. The animal rights organization is trying to get pregnant women banned from a chicken wing eating contest at the National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York.
It's not just the chickens they claim to be worried about either, or that pregnant women will eat an ungodly amount of them. They say they are worried about the penises of the unborn baby boys the women are carrying too.
Apparently there was a study done a few years back that said women who eat chicken and chicken products MAY be linked to their sons having smaller penises. It all had to do with phthalates, which was found in higher levels in chicken than in some other food products. In a statement, Lindsay Rajt of PETA said:
Pregnant women may want to think twice before chomping on those chicken wings, or their sons could come up short. Chickens may be little animals, but they suffer in a big way before their wings are hacked off for a stupid contest.
No one wants to mess with their son's manhood, but c'mon. We don't need the scare tactics. Everything you eat, drink, and touch when you're pregnant supposedly has some negative effect on your unborn child. We can avoid the big ones that have repeatedly been shown to cause harm (e.g., cigarettes and alcohol), but if we ruled out every food link to a possible harmful effect, we'd starve.
More importantly — it's none of PETA's business. If women choose to avoid chicken based on this study, that's fine, but no one needs PETA playing pregnancy police and terrifying them into doing so. Enjoy those wings, ladies.
What do you think of this move by PETA? What foods did you avoid while pregnant?
Image via Isaac Wedin/Flickr
