Why Does Wegmans Sponsor This?
It’s July, and we all know what that means: fair season is here once again.
County and state fairs across the country are gearing up to promote animal agriculture and normalize cruelty and confinement in the name of entertainment. We’ve been advocating, documenting, and speaking out for the animals who are used at fairs for years, with a specific focus on the Dairy Cow Birthing Center at the New York State Fair.
A large inflatable dairy cow outside at the entrance to a birthing center at a large agricultural fair. New York State Fair, Syracuse, New York, USA, 2024. Jo-Anne McArthur / Woodstock Farm Sanctuary / We Animals
Wegmans is a corporate sponsor of the Birthing Center
The Birthing Center is funded by corporate sponsors like Wegmans, a family-owned grocery store chain and a Western NY institution. They have been sponsoring the Birthing Center for several years, and it's time to send them a strong message that their ongoing support of the Birthing Center is wrong. Woodstock Farm Sanctuary is calling on the Wegmans corporation to end their sponsorship of the Dairy Cow Birthing Center at the New York State Fair for good.
A dairy cow at a large agricultural fair gives birth to a calf in front of a live audience at an agricultural fair. She and other pregnant dairy cows in the fair birthing center are induced into labour at the fair so that attendees can watch. New York State Fair, Syracuse, New York, USA, 2024. Jo-Anne McArthur / Woodstock Farm Sanctuary / We Animals
Why is this so important to us? Every year at the New York State Fair, heavily pregnant cows are transported from dairy farms across the State to give birth in front of an audience in the Birthing Center. Minutes after birth, their babies are taken from them and put into a pen out of sight to be fawned over by the crowd.
The Birthing Center's purpose is to present dairy farming in a positive light and provide palatable explanations and justifications for common practices in the dairy industry, such as the separation of moms and babies, the discarding of baby boys, forced impregnation, and confinement of cows.
Still wet from birth, a newborn calf taken from his mother lies in a makeshift sleigh as farmers drag him away to be weighed and moved to the opposite side of a birthing center at a large agricultural fair. New York State Fair, Syracuse, New York, USA, 2024. Jo-Anne McArthur / Woodstock Farm Sanctuary / We Animals
Through their sponsorship, Wegmans is endorsing the stressful transportation of pregnant mothers, stressful births in front of a crowd, and forced separation of moms and babies in the name of “education.” They are also co-signing the misinformation spread by the Birthing Center about dairy farming's impact on climate change and the environment.
We need your help to send a strong message to Wegmans that their sponsorship of the Birthing Center needs to end. We want to get 2,000 signatures before the New York State Fair begins in August. Will you sign our petition today?
A mother dairy cow licks clean her newborn calf at a large agricultural fair. She was induced to give birth in the fair birthing center in front of live audiences. New York State Fair, Syracuse, New York, USA, 2024. Jo-Anne McArthur / Woodstock Farm Sanctuary / We Animals