Chasing Wienermobiles: PETA’s Role in Creating Oscar Mayer’s Vegan Hot Dog
Hot dawg—victory! Following years of PETA campaigns, Oscar Mayer will be releasing vegan wieners and vegan sausages. NotHotDogs and Italian- and bratwurst-style NotSausages—from a collab between TheNotCompany (NotCo) and Oscar Mayer—will be available nationwide in grocery stores this spring. The products consist of ingredients like pea protein, bamboo fiber, and mushrooms. PETA relishes applauding this major mark of progress after persistently urging the company—behind the scenes and publicly—to make vegan versions of its products.
Chasing Wienermobiles: Urging Oscar Mayer to Make Vegan Hot Dogs
PETA’s campaign pushing Oscar Mayer to offer vegan products has included chasing the company’s Wienermobiles for years. Animal advocates in pig masks have caused them to pack up and dash off from events early, but after the catalytic converter was stolen from one of the vehicles, we offered to replace it—if the company would offer vegan wieners.
The Wienermobiles traverse the country, enticing people to try Oscar Mayer meats, which can set them on the road to developing life-threatening health problems. Long before the flesh-carrying conveyance nearly brought about its own demise by crashing into a suburban home, we trailed it around the country as it conducted a talent search for children to sing the Oscar Mayer theme song. At one stop, our “pig” even managed to clamber aboard the mobile meat mover, and he was poised to take the fiberglass frank for a spin when he was apprehended by the authorities.
We also own stock in Oscar Mayer’s parent company (Kraft Heinz) and have spoken up at its annual shareholder meetings, urging it to shut down its dirty, cruel slaughterhouses and convert to producing vegan foods. Nearly 70,000 people signed our action alert urging the company to make vegan hot dogs.
The compassionate collab between NotCo and Oscar Mayer is, frankly, a definitive victory: Our constant campaigning for Oscar Mayer to make this move paid off.
Why Oscar Mayer Must Keep Offering Vegan Choices
Every year, Oscar Mayer sells countless hot dogs made from the flesh of cows and pigs raised in horrific conditions and violently killed in slaughterhouses.
Every living, feeling cow or pig is someone, not something. Cows are intelligent, have good memories, and develop close friendships. They mourn the deaths of their loved ones, sometimes shedding tears over their loss. The bond between mother cows and their calves is particularly strong, and there are countless reports of mother cows who continue to call and search frantically for their babies after workers take them away.
Pigs are clever, friendly, loyal, and intelligent. They’re clean individuals who avoid soiling their living areas, and, given the opportunity, they love playing for hours, lying in the sun, and exploring their surroundings with their powerful sense of smell. But when pigs and cows are exploited in the meat industry, they’re robbed of everything that’s natural and meaningful to them.
What You Can Do
It’s easy to make kind choices, including buying vegan hot dogs and vegan sausages. Try PETA’s free vegan starter kit:
