PETA is almost always, 100% full of shit. Just my opinion.
This claim is no different. Not only because it is false, but because it is shallow and incomplete. PETA is saying "well, we believe dairy products cause autism, but we don't know why..."
Yeah, that's complete bullshit. If you're going to claim use of a product causes harm, you need to produce even a minute amount of proof as to their being a link. PETA is not doing that at all.
Now, although I do NOT believe milk/dairy cause autism, you COULD potentially make a link. At least one study done by they National Institutes of Health found that boys with autism had higher levels of growth hormone than boys without autism. Autistics supposedly also have larger heads, develop large, etc.
If PETA wanted me (or anyone) to take them seriously, then they should have said that cows are given growth hormone to produce more milk, and those hormones are passed along to the people who consume dairy products, including kids.
I mean, there's already been debate for years about hormones and antibiotics given to cattle, and whether those things have caused early puberty in today's kids. So, it wouldn't be hard for PETA to piggyback on that idea and suggest that growth hormones in cattle are passed along to kids through dairy products.
Of course, the thing there is, millions of people in this country consume dairy products and we're not all autistic. And even if you isolate a generation, the vast majority of kids are still not going to be autistic. It's something that obviously affects a minority of people, and thus logically has to be something genetically triggered.
Anyways, PETA fails.
In fact, my feeling is, more kyds are at risk of being exposed to tainted titty juice than by drinking pasteurized cow's milk or formula. We know that environmental toxins and diseases do show up in titty juice. And yet, no one is talking about banning beefing for the sake of the chyldrunnnn.