NFL Urged to Ditch Leather Footballs After PETA Exposes Slaughterhouse Violations, Thousands of Cows Killed

For Immediate Release:
August 14, 2025

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

PETA is urging the NFL to switch to synthetic footballs following a new undercover investigation filmed inside a slaughterhouse that supplies leather for Wilson’s official NFL footballs, revealing terrified cows watching and trying to escape as others are being shot in the back of the head and dismembered in front of them—all in violation of industry and government guidelines.

The footage—taken at Rodabaugh Bros Meats in Pandora, Ohio—shows a cow trying to escape the kill pen in vain and another who watched wide-eyed for over nine minutes as cows in front of them were being hung up by their feet and hacked to pieces. One of the slaughterhouse owners was also caught on video bragging to PETA’s investigator, “I was a loan officer at a bank before we bought this. I used to have a good job with benefits, but now I get to kill things.”

“Imagine the horror cows endure, unable to avoid seeing their herd mates slaughtered right in front of them, and terrified because they know that’s what’s about to happen to them—and all this for a ball,” says PETA Sr. Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “It’s time for the NFL to catch up to other leagues that have embraced elite synthetic materials and give cows a break.”

In its letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the Competition Committee, PETA points out that synthetic materials are preferred and used in other outdoor sports like soccer and rugby due to their consistent performance in adverse weather conditions and that NFL footballs already have synthetic bladders, laces, stitching, and embossed textures. But a league rule unnecessarily stipulates the balls’ casing must be made of animal leather, requiring thousands of cows to be killed annually.

Violating slaughterhouse guidelines set forth by the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)—and cited on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website—PETA’s video captured a slaughterer stunning cows in the back of the head with a captive bolt gun instead of the forehead, where proper stunning should be administered. The USDA warns that “incorrect positioning, resulting in an ineffective stun, will cause the animal to suffer pain and distress.” In addition, forcing cows to witness the slaughter and dismemberment of others further violates AVMA and NAMI best practices.

PETA is also sending letters to Wilson urging it to solely manufacture synthetic footballs and to the slaughterhouse urging it to stop killing and dismembering cows in view of other terrified cows.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.