No Bull: PETA Offers World’s Cutest AI Calf to Replace Live Animals at Minnesota State Fair

For Immediate Release:
July 23, 2025

Contact:
Hannah Nelson 202-483-7382

Ahead of the Minnesota State Fair, PETA today sent a letter to Fair CEO Renee Alexander with a mooving offer: A walking, talking, dancing AI-powered robotic calf with a state-of-the-art 3-D-printed head to replace the animals used at the CHS Miracle of Birth Center. The high-tech heifer, named Robetsy, has been touring the nation, drawing massive crowds and even catching the attention of Stephen Colbert.

At the Miracle of Birth Center, which PETA points out is more accurately an “Exploitation of Birth Center,” cows, pigs, goats, and sheep to labor and give birth in front of noisy crowds of strangers, with no comfort or privacy from prying eyes or rowdy children. Once the fair ends, the animals are trucked to slaughter or sent back to the farms they came from, where they’ll eventually be slaughtered for their flesh and skin, or used for milk or wool until their bodies wear out. If Alexander accepts the offer to provide Robetsy instead, PETA will also provide free vegan ice cream to attendees.

“Forcing animals who are already condemned to the slaughterhouse to give birth in a cramped pen while dozens of strangers crowd around to gawk at them is bizarre and cruel, and it teaches children the dangerous message that animals are ours to exploit from the moment they’re born,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges the Minnesota State Fair to replace this outdated spectacle with our high-tech robot cow, which would entertain fairgoers and spare real animal moms from stress, confusion, and fear.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. PETA’s free vegan starter kit is filled with tips to help anyone looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

PETA’s letter to Alexander follows.

July 23, 2025

Renee Alexander, CEO

Minnesota State Fair

Dear Ms. Alexander:

Hello! I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 10.4 million members and supporters globally, including tens of thousands in Minnesota—with an offer that would both captivate those visiting the fair and send a message of kindness and compassion: Would you please replace the CHS Miracle of Birth Center, which allows cows no privacy from prying eyes, lights, and noise, with PETA’s AI-powered robotic cow, Robetsy? Allow me to explain how everyone would benefit.

Robetsy is a walking, talking robot, featuring a state-of-the-art 3-D-printed calf’s head. She can speak and dance, and she draws huge crowds and media attention everywhere she goes—even Stephen Colbert has taken notice! Since more and more people are going vegan for health or humane reasons, or maybe because of methane from cows, PETA staff would happily hand out free vegan ice cream while people take photos and interact with Robetsy. She’d be the perfect modern replacement for the CHS Miracle of Birth Center, as labor is a vulnerable time when any mother should be afforded comfort and privacy, not afflicted with crowds of strangers and clamor. As we never forget, cows experience joy, fear, sadness, and pain and have complex social and emotional lives. They deserve our respect and understanding.

As you know, in the dairy industry, calves are torn away from them within days or even hours of birth so that the milk meant for them can be sold instead. To keep them almost constantly producing milk, cows are artificially inseminated with someone’s hand up their rectum and then sperm is inserted into their uterus via a syringe. It would be an understatement to say that this process is not pleasant for them. Because the industry has no use for male calves, they’re commonly sold to be chopped up for veal. Female calves usually experience the same fate as their mothers: They’re used as milk machines until, once their production declines, they’re sent on a frightening journey to slaughter.

Times and traditions change. We hope you’ll agree that no one, regardless of species or circumstance, should suffer publicly for human “show and tell.” Cows’ lives are hard enough. There is a great opportunity here to create a fun, harmless celebration that everyone could get behind. Please extend compassion to animals by replacing the exhibit’s live cows with Robetsy. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Ingrid Newkirk

President