PETA: Battling Bullfighting, Banning Buffalo Races, Saving Cows and Calves
If you could see them today, you’d never guess where we found Jerry and Peter: A PETA investigator came across the calves on a filthy dairy factory farm that supplied Land O’Lakes. They were in appalling condition. Jerry was nearly blind from a painful pink eye infection, and Peter was 100 pounds underweight and too weak to stand. Although precious to their mothers, male calves born in the dairy industry are just inconvenient “byproducts” to farmers – something to get rid of so that humans can take their mothers’ milk. PETA took Jerry and Peter to The Cow Sanctuary in New Jersey, where, with love and veterinary care, they blossomed. Spunky Peter went from death’s door to head of the herd. Shy Jerry was content to spend quiet afternoons with his best friend, Patrick – a pig. These dear lads got a second chance at life, but most cows aren’t so lucky because so many humans still demand dairy.
Of course, cows and bulls can feel love, grief, and other emotions. Yet anyone who buys dairy cheese is paying to have loving mothers treated as disposable milk machines. For the sake of a handbag, cows are viewed not as sentient beings but as raw materials. Bulls are forced to pull heavy carts, are whipped to race, and are stabbed to death slowly by matadors. PETA entities are out to stop it all, and we shall.
There’s no excuse for any animal abuse! You can now get vegan anything – from cheesecake to coffee creamer and from burgers to bulgogi – and PETA has paved the way from the time of our inception, when buying nondairy milk was unheard of, when vegan leather shoes and car interiors were never even dreamt of, and when no one thought twice about using animals for entertainment or as “beasts of burden.” We’ve knocked down all these ideas with decades of provocative protests, undercover investigations, videos, celebrity ads, legal action, and behind-the-scenes work to show corporations the business they’re missing if they fail to offer animal-friendly options.
Today, cowskin shoes must be as unacceptable as a human-skin jacket – a point that PETA models have made by strutting their provocative “human leather” outfits at fashion shows around the globe. And our work with automakers – including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, Jeep, and Volvo – means that now anyone can get fully vegan car interiors.
Bullfighting in Spain, bullockcart racing in India, buffalo mozzarella factory farming in Canada – whatever and wherever the exploitation, PETA entities are hard at work changing perspectives and old habits to achieve animal liberation.
