Bulls Beaten, Bloodied & Forced to Haul Overloaded Carts for Pepsi Sugar — PETA India Campaign Targets Gen Z
For Immediate Release:
19 August 2026
Contact:
Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]
Varulika Dixit; [email protected]
Delhi—With Pepsi in India focusing heavily on marketing to Gen Z, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) is displaying messages reading “Pepsi: Cut the Bull! Nobody Wants a Spiked Drink. STOP using SPIKES and other TORTURE DEVICES to FORCE BULLS to HAUL sugarcane” outside colleges in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Kolkata. PETA India aims to motivate Gen Z, a generation known for its concern for animals, to urge the soft drink giant to stop violating its own animal welfare policy by sourcing sugar via partners and suppliers for which bulls are beaten, whipped, and forced to haul heavy loads of sugarcane.
The company’s Indian bottling partner obtains sugar from regions where bulls are beaten with sticks and whips as they struggle to carry carts illegally overloaded with as much as four tonnes of sugarcane. Not only does such gruelling labour cause painful abscesses and muscle tears, but many animals suffer bloody wounds from the barbed-wire spikes that tear into their faces if they “disobey” by turning their heads.
The ad is located at Hindu College Sudhir Bose Marg, University Enclave, North Campus, New Delhi, 110007.
The bull in the inset is forced to haul heavy loads using a spiked yoke device fitted on the sides that restricts the bull’s movement, causes painful wounds and bleeding on the neck. Credit: Animal Rahat
“Every day, bulls endure beatings, whippings, painful wounds from sharp spikes, and gruelling labour for the production of the sugar used in Pepsi-branded drinks. Gen Z would not approve,” says PETA India Senior Manager of Corporate Projects, Dr Kiran Ahuja. “PepsiCo has the power to help end this cruelty. PETA India urges the company to honour its own animal welfare policy by sourcing sugar only from suppliers that do not use animal labour and by supporting the transition to mechanised sugarcane transport across India.”
Animal Rahat, an India-based animal protection charity, has worked since 2011 to replace bullock-driven carts with more efficient and cost-effective mechanised alternatives through its Sugarcane Industry Mechanisation Project. Through the project’s influence, one-third of Maharashtra’s sugar production has been mechanised. A single tractor is capable of transporting up to 18 tonnes of sugar per trip, providing owners with improved income opportunities.
Bulls are highly social animals who, given the chance, form long-lasting, cooperative relationships with their fellow herd members. PETA India encourages everyone to help spare bulls a lifetime of suffering by urging PepsiCo to require its partners and suppliers to switch to humane and modern eco-tractors.
Billboards with the message “Pepsi: All Fizz No Heart. Stop cruelty to animals for sugar” were also placed outside PepsiCo’s Headquarters in Gurgaon and PepsiCo’s Global Business Services (GBS) office in Hyderabad earlier this year.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow PETA India on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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