Marshmallow Makeover: PETA Presses General Mills to Make Lucky Charms Vegan
For Immediate Release:
March 2, 2026
Contact:
Hannah Nelson 202-483-7382
Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, PETA sent a letter today to General Mills’ Chair and CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening, requesting that the company give Lucky Charms a vegan makeover thatall cereal lovers will treasure. PETA points out that the cereal now includes gelatin made by boiling pigs’ skin, and D3 from the oil in sheep’s fleece, and swapping these for vegan ingredients would make Lucky Charms accessible to all the people who avoid animal-based products for humane, religious, cultural, environmental, or health reasons.
“Lucky Charms shouldn’t be a cereal killer when it can be a cereal kinder by switching to the vegan ingredients people expect today,” says PETA Founder Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s 10 million members would be over the rainbow to help General Mills celebrate this win for animals and families alike.”
Pigs dream when they sleep, recognize their names, and show empathy for other pigs who are happy or distressed. Yet, in the meat industry, they have their tails, testicles, and bits of their ears cut off, are subjected to extreme crowding, a terrifying journey to the slaughterhouse, and a violent, frightening, and painful death. It’s nothing that makes you want a bowl of cereal! Meanwhile,PETA entities’ exposés of more than 150 wool-industry operations on four continents have exposed extreme and rampant abuse of sheep, who grow depressed if isolated from their flock and communicate their emotions to each other through facial expressions.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out thatEvery Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Harmening follows.
March 2, 2026
Jeffrey L. Harmening
Chair of the Board and CEO
General Mills
Dear Mr. Harmening:
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 more than 79,200 in Minnesota as well as staff who live and work in Ireland—with a suggestion Irish you’ll take seriously: Will you please make the Charms vegan? It would only increase sales, as right now there are people who won’t buy Lucky Charms because of two nasty ingredients but want to be able to do so. Please allow me to elaborate.
The gelatin used in Lucky Charms is far from magically delicious—it’s actually sickening enough to make the consumer turn green because it’s made by boiling pigs’ skin in water. Pigs are charming, social animals who love belly rubs and playing, but on factory farms, they’re forced to spend their entire lives in filth and intensive confinement and are denied fresh air and everything that’s natural and important to them. A typical slaughterhouse kills up to 1,100 pigs every hour, the sheer volume of which makes it impossible for all animals to be slaughtered quickly and painlessly.
Also, the D3 used in Lucky Charms comes from lanolin, which is extracted from sheep’s wool. PETA entities have continuously exposed horrific cruelty on over 150 sheep farms across seven countries and found that workers routinely beat, stomp on, and kick sheep and slice their bodies up with no pain relief when they are shorn—and almost every sheep whose wool is taken ends up being slaughtered.
Replacing the gelatin with Geltor’s vegan collagen, agar-agar, or pectin and swapping lanolin-derived D3 with vegan vitamin D3—all of which are readily available—would help keep Lucky Charms whimsical while cerealsly expanding its appeal to the millions of people who avoid animal products for ethical, religious, cultural, or health-related reasons. Demand for vegan food is at an all-time high, particularly among younger consumers. The number of vegans in the U.S. has grown by over 200% since 2016, and 14% of U.S. adults born between 1995 and 2012 identify as either vegan or vegetarian.
We’re not after your Lucky Charms—we just ask that you make them vegan to spare animals immense suffering. We’d be happy to highlight the switch to all our members and supporters and perhaps celebrate with a celebrity breakfast! Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid Newkirk
Founder
