Pepsi Funds Bull Abuse in Sugar Industry—PETA India’s New Sky-High Message Calls for Action
For Immediate Release:
29 May 2026
Contact:
Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]
Anushka Yadav; [email protected]
Gurgaon — “Stop cruelty to animals for sugar”—that’s the new message from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) on a billboard outside PepsiCo’s India headquarters, as the soft drink giant violates its own animal welfare policy by sourcing sugar via partners and suppliers from farms where 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 billboard is located on the Southern Peripheral Road (SPR Road), Near Vatika Chowk, Opp. Tata Primanti, Sector 69, Gurgaon, 122004.
“Exhausted bulls are suffering with painful wounds and are being worked to death for the sugar in Pepsi’s soft drinks right now,” says PETA India Senior Manager of Corporate Projects, Dr Kiran Ahuja. “PETA India urges PepsiCo to stop this cruelty by sourcing sugar only from suppliers that don’t use animal labour, and to use its vast resources to help India’s sugar industry mechanise.”
In the United States, PETA has taken aggressive action against PepsiCo over the same issue. In February 2026, after PETA Foundation attorneys filed a lawsuit, PepsiCo was forced to allow shareholders to vote on a resolution about animal abuse in its supply chain. In May, five protesters dressed as bulls cemented their feet at PepsiCo’s New York headquarters during the company’s annual shareholder meeting and were arrested. PETA secured enough shareholder votes to bring the resolution back next year.
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 and abuse on sugarcane farms by urging PepsiCo to require its partners and suppliers to switch to humane and modern eco-tractors.
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.
#
