Breaking: Animal Defender Confronts PepsiCo CEO Over Bulls Beaten for Sugar 

For Immediate Release:
May 20, 2026

Contact:
Alex Payne 202-483-7382

Moments ago, a PETA supporter confronted PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta as he received the 2026 Esade Award at L’Auditori in Barcelona, blasting the beverage giant for supporting the abuse of bulls through its partners and suppliers in India, where the animals are beaten, whipped, and forced to haul carts illegally overloaded with up to 8,000 pounds of sugarcane. Holding a sign proclaiming, “PepsiCo: Stop Abusing Bulls for Sugar,” the animal defender brought the ceremony to a screeching halt, shouting, “Please, stop bull labor” until they were dragged out by security.

Video footage of the disruption is available here, and images are here.

PepsiCo’s bottling partner in India is part of an industry where bulls are beaten with sticks and whips as they struggle to pull carts under the blazing sun without rest or water. Many are left with bloody gashes on their faces from barbed-wire spikes that rip into their skin if they “disobey” by turning their heads, and they’re restrained with nose ropes that tear their nasal septa. They often collapse from exhaustion—and some are even worked to death and left where they fall.

“Bulls suffer backbreaking labor and violence for the sugar in Pepsi-branded drinks, even though humane options like eco-tractors are already available and more efficient,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on PepsiCo to honor its own animal welfare policy by requiring its suppliers to go bull-free now.”

PETA brought this abuse to the attention of PepsiCo’s leadership earlier this year, but the company has failed to act, even when mechanizing transport could easily replace bulls and improve production efficiency and human worker welfare. Earlier this month, PETA mailed Laguarta a spiked yoke—an illegal torture device designed to control the bulls by painfully digging into their necks and preventing them from even turning their heads—to show him first-hand just some of what bulls endure.

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