Victories: Vegan

Red Mango introduced its new Fro-No line of vegan probiotic frozen treats, starting with two flavors: Caramelized Pineapple and Blood Orange. The frozen-yogurt chain already offers great vegan Skinny Sorbettos, and we had encouraged it to expand its vegan offerings.

Online grocer FreshDirect has added three Hodo Soy products—Sichuan Mapo Tofu, Five Spice Tofu Nuggets, and Thai Curry Tofu Nuggets—making it the only large grocer in the Northeast U.S. to carry them. (Usually, you’ll find them in only small natural-food stores.)

For years, PETA has pushed Starbucks to add a vegan entrée, and now the company has rolled out its new Vegan Lentils & Vegetables Protein Bowl with Brown Rice in major cities across the U.S.

Sbarro’s Cucinova restaurant brand has added a Daiya vegan cheese option to menus at all six locations, which are in Ohio. We’re working to spread the news with the hope that this option will carry over to the Sbarro brand itself.

Following encouragement from PETA, as well as growing public interest in wellness-focused lifestyles, Oceania Cruises launched new vegan menus—which feature more than 250 innovative, plant-based dishes—on its six ships. Two ships also have raw juice and smoothie bars.

After hearing from more than 125,000 people who watched PETA’s investigative footage, the government of Israel pressured Paraguay to set a deadline of the end of 2017 for eliminating the horrifically cruel “shackle and hoist” method of kosher slaughter. Paraguay supplies about 40 percent of Israel’s beef.

Quiznos is testing dishes at its new sister restaurant, ZEPS EPIQ Sandwiches. After PETA engaged the chain regarding vegan options, it added tofu and falafel to the ZEPS menu. The tortillas and all breads except for the gluten-free buns are vegan, so there are multiple exciting dishes that can be ordered cruelty-free.

Dannon updated its position statement (under the Nature tab of its corporate social responsibility page) to include its support for breeding “polled” (hornless) cattle as a solution to dehorning. The statement reads: “Dannon believes the use of genetic breeding programs to promote naturally hornless cattle—or ‘polled’ cattle—will benefit the welfare of cows and the farmers who … Read more »

January 2015 Fast-growing pizza chain PizzaRev added vegan sausage as a permanent topping at its corporate locations—which includes all stores in Los Angeles County and Bakersfield, California—and additional stores may be adding the topping to their menus as well. PizzaRev previously added vegan cheese and made all its crusts vegan-friendly after seeing great support for … Read more »

January 2015 IKEA, which originally planned to introduce vegetarian meatballs that contained animal products, committed to offering vegan meatballs instead after hearing from PETA. The new vegan meatballs will be available at all IKEA stores beginning in April 2015.

September 2014 Milkco, owned by grocery chain Ingles Markets, and Piedmont Milk Sales both severed ties with Osborne Farm after viewing PETA’s undercover investigation, which documented that cows waded knee-deep in their own excrement.

July 2014 After learning of horrific undercover footage of workers dismembering lobsters alive, Delaware North, a leading food-service and hospitality provider, pulled Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster and is no longer allowing it to be served at its sports venues.

After intense public pressure, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation banned the retail sale of second generation rodent poisons.

Following PETA’s efforts to end dehorning in the dairy industry, in which calves have their horn buds burned off with no pain relief, companies have begun to pressure their suppliers to stop this cruel mutilation.

After an activist notified us that Cat Cora’s Kitchen at the San Francisco International Airport was arranging live lobsters on ice for patrons to view while eating, PETA convinced the restaurant manager to discontinue the cruel and unnecessary display.