As I drove through downtown Portland, Oreg., a couple of years ago, there was a PETA protest outside of a fur coat store. In the floor-to-ceiling windows were huge signs that said “PETA SALE! ENTIRE STORE 50% OFF!”   Many people were carrying their new coats out of the store. I’ve often thought back on the clever interaction between activism and a free market economy (and cheered for the fur store).

It is ironic that there is such a fight for the value of animal’s rights when we don’t respect the rights of humans. This week the vice president of PETA sent a letter to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, requesting them to use human breast milk instead of cow milk.

I agree that animals should never be abused (and I think it's OK to be a vegetarian), but animals are animals. God made it clear in Genesis that man was to rule over the livestock and fish.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:26-27

More importantly than our role to rule over the animal kingdom is the fact that we are intentionally created in the image of God. The animals were not. We are given the ability to make ethical decisions and to love. This passage makes it clear that God intended animals to feed us and clothe us. Using women’s milk instead of a cow’s not only makes my stomach queasy, but it turns a human into an animal. That is inhumane.