Giant Inflatable Babies to Host Vegan Cheese Giveaway With a Message: ‘Save the Land Whales!’

For Immediate Release:
October 9, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Baltimore – On Wednesday, PETA supporters dressed as giant inflatable babies will hand out free Babybel Plant-Based cheese snacks at Inner Harbor near a newly erected sky-high appeal asking why anyone would accept the separation of cows from their calves on dairy farms but be rightly outraged when the same thing is done to whales and their calves. The two mammals are the same in all the ways that matter: Both nurse their young, bond tightly with their calves, interact in socially complex ways, and mourn when they’re separated from those they love.

When:    Wednesday, October 11, 12 noon

Where:    Inner Harbor, 201 E. Pratt St., Baltimore

“Land whales” need saving because instead of being allowed to explore, play, and be with their families, calves in the dairy industry are torn away from their grieving mothers so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold at supermarkets. It’s standard industry practice to forcibly inseminate cows—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina. And although people rarely think about it, there’s no retirement home for cows: After only a few years, their bodies wear out and they’re sent to slaughter.

“A cow produces milk for her calf, just as a whale does for her calf and a human does for her baby—not your mom, not your milk,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA reminds everyone how devastated cows are when their calves are forcibly taken from them and how easy it is to choose vegan cheese.”

Not only is the dairy industry cruel, it’s also a major contributor to the climate catastrophe. In the U.S., emissions from cows are the primary source of the greenhouse gas methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere.

The billboard—located at 156 N. Gay St., just a block away from The Baltimore Farmers’ Market and near a number of eateries—is the latest in an East Coast ad blitz that has landed in cities including Atlanta; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Boston; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and New Bedford, Massachusetts.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.