FAIRS ARE BUILT ON ANIMAL EXPLOITATION.

STOP LIVE BIRTHING exhibits at fairs

Join Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in saying NO to live birthing exhibits! Every summer across the country, pregnant farmed animals like pigs and cows are transported to state and county fairs and put on display to give birth in front of an audience.

We got some good news this summer—the New York State Fair Dairy Cow Birthing Center is “taking a break” and will not happen in 2026 after our multi-year campaign to shut them down, and now we want other fairs to follow suit. Members of our team visited the New York State Fair over several years to gather footage and investigate the Dairy Cow Birthing Center, an annual event designed to promote dairy consumption and garner public support for the dairy industry. What we witnessed was deeply troubling: cows in labor, forced to give birth in front of large noisy crowds, mothers and calves separated within an hour of birth, and volunteers downplaying the harsh realities of the dairy industry to curious onlookers. We knew we had to advocate for it to close.

This birthing exhibit at the New York State Fair won't happen this year but many other birthing centers will at state and county fairs. We want to put a stop to all of them but need your help. Please sign and join us in support of shutting down these cruel exhibitions.

Sign Our Petition

We are a coalition of farmed animal sanctuaries and activist organizations who are working together to spread awareness about the realities of state and county fairs.

The first state and county fairs were created for farmers to display their products—both plant and animal—to their community and to promote local agriculture. As fairs have evolved over the years elements like carnivals and musical acts have been added, but the display of farmed animals remains a central part of the fair. The farmed animals you see on display at state and county fairs are being used to promote and sanitize the farming of animals, and to advertise the animal products that the farms sell. Some animals will go back to the farms they came from, and others will be sent to slaughter directly from the fair. All of them are being exploited for profit and entertainment.

WHERE DO THE ANIMALS COME FROM?

Fairs are an opportunity for local farms to display their animals and advertise their businesses.

Most of the animals you see have been transported from farms and will either return to the farm or go to slaughter after the fair. Other farmed animals have been raised by children who are part of 4H and FFA programs.

These programs have contests and demonstrations where animals are judged in categories based on their species and their utility to humans. Some will be sold to buyers at the fair, which means they will either go directly from the fair to the slaughterhouse, or to a farm to be used for breeding.

4H and FFA programs normalize the consumption of animals and teach children to ignore the bonds they create with the animals they spend so much time raising.

HOW ARE ANIMALS EXPLOITED AT FAIRS?

Fairs usually have a wide range of animals who are being used for entertainment.

Farm Displays

Being on display as a herd or flock animal is extremely stressful. These fairs are loud and crowded, and the smells and sounds of other stressed animals are everywhere. This stress begins with the ride to the fair, where animals can be transported long distances in trailers. This journey can be hot, bumpy, and crowded, and is yet another form of unnecessary confinement.

These animals are used to present an idyllic image of the local family farm to fairgoers, but they are not true representatives of the way farmed animals are treated on production farms. The fairgoers see a sanitized and clean depiction of animal farming that doesn’t accurately show the mutilation, suffering, harm, and death that is common practice on farms.

BIRTHING TENTS

In many state and county fairs, pregnant cows who are in labor are put on display so that humans can watch them give birth. Often these are dairy cows, whose babies will be separated from them so that their milk can be taken for human consumption, which is standard practice in the dairy industry.

These calves are on display as just another cute attraction, but they represent the fundamental injustice of the dairy industry — babies do not get to know their mothers or drink the milk their mothers make for them. They are often separated at the fair after the moms gave birth in front of loud spectators.

In the photos below you will also see a veal hutch, where male babies born in the dairy industry are confined before being killed at just a few months old. The cheerful signage leaves out the reason that the calf is in the hutch in the first place—to keep them from moving around and growing muscle before they are slaughtered for veal when they are still a baby. The signage also doesn’t explain what is happening to the calf’s mother who just gave birth to them.

PIG RACES

Piglets and young pigs can be chased by children or used in races against other pigs. When they are chased, you can hear the piglets screaming in fear and pain. These pigs will either be killed soon after this abuse, or transported to other fairs to race until they aren’t of use anymore.

HORSE RACES

Many fairs also feature horseracing, a practice which confines, injures, and kills horses every year.

Click here to learn more about horse racing.

EXOTIC ANIMALS

Some fairs have exotic animals for sale, display, or in petting zoo type set-ups. The New York State Fair (see photos below) and others also displays large exotic animals like giraffes, kangaroos, and zebras in small enclosures in a petting zoo. Visitors are encouraged at the NY State Fair to feed the giraffe and zebra carrots (signage pictured below). This is extremely harmful and is only done for profit as there is no educational or even agricultural message. These species are not domesticated so they have a very low tolerance for humans, and this sort of display causes a lot of suffering and harm. This sort of display and loud environment is the opposite of natural and is extremely harmful and abusive.