LOS ANGELES (May 21, 2026) – Animal protection organizations have released powerful video footage of a demonstration held on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to mark the first-ever International Calf & Cow Mothers’ Day. The May 16 protest was part of an historic global initiative aimed at establishing a new Mother’s Day tradition: honoring the sacred mother-child bond among all species while amplifying their inherent right to bodily autonomy and freedom.

The demonstration was co-hosted by In Defense of Animals, Los Angeles Animal Save, Animal Alliance Network, and UnchainedTV, and was organized in solidarity with the Million Vegan Grandmothers and Climate Healers. Dressed in cow suits, activists used the highly visible Hollywood Boulevard location to challenge the deceptive marketing of dairy products as wholesome, revealing the brutal reality required to produce them.

WATCH UNCHAINED TV BROADCAST: https://www.facebook.com/JaneVelezMitchell/videos/2122612798311747

At the center of the protest is the standard dairy industry practice of tearing newborn calves from their mothers shortly after birth so the mother's milk can be sold for human consumption. Like humans, mother cows carry their babies for nine months and suffer immense trauma upon separation. Activists highlighted that mother cows are frequently observed bellowing in anguish for days after their calves are removed.

Campaigners say these standard practices, utilized across both "factory farms" and "small family farms," lay bare the violent reality behind milk and cheese production. Male calves, considered disposable byproducts because they do not produce milk, are routinely shot, sent to slaughterhouses within days, or confined and killed for veal.

Meanwhile, female calves face a continuous cycle of exploitation. Most are confined in isolated hutches for weeks, subjected to agonizing mutilations such as the burning off of their horn buds without anesthesia, and forcibly impregnated as young as one year old to begin the cycle anew. Mothers are slaughtered as soon as their milk production drops and they are no longer deemed profitable.

“Just like world-renowned, award-winning musician Billie Eilish says, ‘You can’t love animals and eat them’… or their secretions. Mother cows are milked to death for milk, cheese and ice cream, to then become cheap burgers. Let’s live compassionately and choose plants to eat and drink," said Paige Parsons Roache, speaking on behalf of Los Angeles Animal Save.

“We should all be about protecting that mother/child bond, no matter the species,” said Jane Velez-Mitchell of UnchainedTV. “It's morally reprehensible to rip a baby calf from his or her mom so we can steal her breast milk.”

The coalition emphasizes that this extreme exploitation extends across all animal agriculture. In the egg industry, male chicks are killed upon hatching because they cannot lay eggs, while mother pigs, turkeys, goats, and sheep are subjected to similar cycles of forced reproduction, family separation, and premature slaughter.

The inaugural International Calf & Cow Mothers’ Day aims to establish a new tradition that recognizes the inherent value, bodily autonomy, and freedom of all mothers and their young. The movement advocates for compassion across land, water, and sky, noting that the babies of wild animals, as well as puppies and kittens bred for profit, are also routinely torn from their mothers.

Advocates are using the Hollywood demonstration and the global two-day event to urge Congress to end the killing of mothers and their babies in animal farming. The coalition is calling on the public to reject faulty nutrition messaging that implies humans should consume the breast milk of another species, and to withdraw financial support from these violent systems by transitioning to a plant-based, vegan lifestyle.

“Most people have no idea that young cows in the dairy industry are mutilated, forcibly impregnated, have their babies stolen from them, and are ultimately slaughtered, while most of their male calves are killed because they don't produce milk,” said Lia Wilbourn, Farmed Animals Campaign Specialist with In Defense of Animals. “To help end the unnecessary suffering and killing of all animals, the most effective thing we can do daily is to live vegan and speak up.”

### NOTES ###

IMAGES & VIDEO: https://bit.ly/CalfCowLA

CONTACTS:

Lia Wilbourn, In Defense of Animals, (707) 776-6828, lia@idausa.org
Paige Parsons Roache, Los Angeles Animal Save, paige@plantbasedtreaty.org

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization based in California with over 250,000 supporters and a history of fighting for animals, people, and the environment through education and campaigns, as well as hands-on rescue facilities in India, South Korea, rural Mississippi, and central California, since 1983.

In Defense of Animals provides 24/7 support for activists and free resources for those transitioning to a vegan lifestyle: https://idausa.org/farmedanimals

### ENDS ###