Sorting the Slices: PETA Ranks Pizza Chains Nationwide

Pieology, Blaze Pizza, and Mellow Mushroom Nab Top Scores—While Domino’s and Pizza Hut Flunk

For Immediate Release:
June 4, 2019

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

To put an animal-friendly twist on National Cheese Day (June 4), PETA is releasing its first-ever comprehensive ranking of 35 pizza joints across the country, noting which spots are stepping up to the plate with satisfying vegan options and which ones are failing to deliver.

The results run the gamut from the “A” awarded to Mellow Mushroom for its variety of tempeh, tofu, and Follow Your Heart cheese toppings to the “F” handed to Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Papa Murphy’s for failing to offer any vegan cheese or meat options. Pieology earned an “A” grade for its “meaty” smorgasbord of meatless meatballs, spicy Italian sausage, and diced chicken—and Blaze Pizza also aced the test with its spicy vegan chorizo and array of sauces. The complete rankings are available here.

“No matter how you slice it, tasty vegan pizza is a treat that can’t be topped,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s rankings give a nod to the restaurants that are dishing up delicious meat- and dairy-free pizzas and call out the ones that have mushroom for improvement.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group notes that the cheese on every slice of nonvegan pizza comes from cows who were repeatedly and forcibly inseminated on a device that the dairy industry has called a “rape rack.” Calves are separated from their mothers soon after birth, and males are often shipped off to be slaughtered for the veal industry. Females endure the same fate as their mothers: repeated artificial insemination in order to produce a steady supply of milk until their bodies give out and they’re sent to the slaughterhouse.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.