‘Babe’ Star James Cromwell Calls on Alma Mater Carnegie Mellon to Memorialize Animals Killed for Campus Meals

For Immediate Release:
November 9, 2026

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

When Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell attended what was then known as “Carnegie Tech,” being vegan, he says, “was so far outside the mainstream that one might as well have been eating the grass on the college quad.” But as the PETA Honorary Director notes in a letter sent today to Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian, times have changed—and he’s asking his alma mater to mark that progress by installing an Animal Recognition Memorial Plaque outside the Cohon Center honoring the countless pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals who were killed for campus meals.

The appeal comes just weeks after Pitzer College in California became the first college in the country to install an Animal Recognition Memorial Plaque, endorsed by renowned civil rights activist Angela Davis. Now, Cromwell is seeking a similar plaque at his former college—one that would fittingly feature pigs, the animals who changed his life and inspired him to go vegan during the filming of Babe.

“Many people know that my connection to animals was profoundly shaped by a pig named Babe,” Cromwell writes. “Through her, I came to understand how pigs are brilliant, inquisitive beings who form bonds, feel joy, and experience fear just as deeply as the dogs and cats we cherish.”

The effort is also supported by Carnegie Mellon student Kenneth Diao, who is working to get the plaque installed on campus.

“I believe in my heart that the vast majority of people care about animals and don’t believe they should be exploited or killed for our pleasure, yet we act in ways that contradict our compassion,” says Diao. “This plaque would remind people that it is in their power to spare animals from the violence and cruelty of the meat, dairy, and egg industries by choosing the vegan option.”

Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their food-related carbon footprint, and slashes their risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity. PETA’s free vegan starter kit is filled with tips to help anyone thinking of making the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a pig is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

Cromwell’s letter to Jahanian follows.

November 9, 2026

Farnam Jahanian

President

Carnegie Mellon University

Dear President Jahanian:

I hope the semester is going well. As a former Carnegie Mellon student, I’m writing to you about an issue that has become deeply important to me over the course of my life: how we humans treat our fellow animals. Many people know that my connection to animals was profoundly shaped by a pig named Babe. Through her, I came to understand how pigs are brilliant, inquisitive beings who form bonds, feel joy, and experience fear just as deeply as the dogs and cats we cherish.

You may have heard that last month, Pitzer College made history by becoming the first college in the country to install an “animal recognition memorial plaque” outside of the school’s dining hall. The memorial plaque – endorsed by Angela Davis – invites the community to acknowledge and consider the millions of pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals who were killed so that their bodies could be served on campus. This is a profound and beautiful idea, so I am respectfully requesting the installation of a similar plaque outside of the Cohon Center.

At 86, I’ve lived long enough to see attitudes toward other animals change enormously. When I was a student at CMU (then Carnegie Tech), the very idea of being vegan was so far outside the mainstream that one might as well have been eating the grass on the college quad. There was little public conversation about who animals are, and little awareness of what they are forced to endure before ending up on our plates: lives defined by misery, confinement, and routine abuse, ending in their slaughter. But today, college students increasingly recognize what my generation did not: that pigs, cows, chickens, and other animals are just like us in all the ways that matter. They are sensitive individuals who feel deeply, who think, who form relationships, and strive to live, just as we do. 

A memorial plaque would mark the extraordinary moral progress I have witnessed in my lifetime while challenging us to continue moving toward a world where violence toward our fellow animals is a thing of the past. For those students who have not yet stopped to think about the individual on their plate, the plaque will invite them to consider the experiences of these animals, and remind them that every meal offers us an opportunity to make kinder choices. CMU strives to empower “the next generation of world-changers,” and this memorial plaque would do just that, providing the moral clarity to not just change the world, but change it for the better.

Thank you for your consideration. I hope you will support this memorial and the opportunity it provides for reflection, conversation, and compassionate action.

Sincerely,

James Cromwell