Tea, Cake, Liberate for all the animal mums on Mother’s Day!

The bond between mothers and children transcends species – but many people don’t consider how these maternal bonds are systemically broken across animal industries. From mothers separated from their babies in the dairy-industry, to birds who are used for breeding in bloodsports, to pregnant rats used in animal testing – a ‘mother’s love’ is disregarded in the pursuit of needless human agendas.  

Farmed Mothers 

Mothers are abused across animal agriculture, so that their bodily secretions can be turned into ‘products’ for humans, or their babies can be killed to become ‘meat’.  

Many people do not realise the suffering that each of these ‘products’ contains – and, crucially, that they are not even ‘products’ at all – but parts of an animal that we never had the right to take. The separation from the item on a supermarket shelf to the living, feeling animal behind it leads many people to consume these foods without realising the abuse that they are condoning through their everyday dietary choices.  

 Mother cows are repeatedly impregnated (via invasive artificial insemination) and separated from their babies. Mother and calf are known to cry for each other for days, with mothers often chasing their babies as they are taken away, forever. This brutal separation is enforced so that a mother’s milk, which is only produced to provide for her baby (just like human breast milk), can be harvested and bottled to sell for humans. The calf goes without. 

 Female calves are doomed to enter the cycle of repeated pregnancy and birth that their mothers endured. Male calves are useless to the dairy industry – some are sent off to veal farms, most are slaughtered. Between 2020-2022, over 107,000 male calves were killed in slaughterhouses.

To avoid this horror – try dairy free! Oat milk and soya milk make great alternatives to dairy milk in coffee and tea, perfect for an afternoon tea or morning brew on Mother’s Day. 

 Other mothers abused in farming industries include pigs and hens. The phrase ‘Mother Hen’ is well-known, but hens within the egg industry are denied their right to express this role. Instead, their natural cycles are exploited, and their eggs are removed to be eaten by humans. Find out more about egg-laying hens.  

 Instead, opt for an eggless recipe for delicious chocolate chip muffins to make on Mother’s Day! 

To make ‘pork’, mother pigs are confined to ‘farrowing crates’ – metal cages – where they cannot even stand up or turn around. This restriction of movement denies them the ability to engage naturally with their babies – who often have their teeth clipped, to avoid them biting each other in frustration at not being able to reach mum. These piglets will likely be killed at around 6 months old, to become ‘meat’. 

 Choose compassion on your plate rather than cruelty and try vegan this Mother’s Day.  

Mothers used for entertainment 

 Mothers are abused across the ‘entertainment’ industries – from horse racing to greyhound racing to zoos. Mother horses (dams), for instance, are separated from their foals much earlier in the racing industry than they would be naturally. Many broodmares (female horses used for breeding) are repeatedly impregnated and then discarded once no longer of ‘use’. Their babies will then have to face the horrors of racing – around 200 horses are killed due to racing on British racecourses each year.  

To stand up against this cruelty, take our pledge to never attend or bet on horse racing. You can find out more about the lives of female horses (mares) within the racing industry here. 

Mothers tested on 

Animal testing often uses parents in cruel and needless procedures. The ‘two generation reproductive test’ involves dosing male and female rats with a ‘test substance’ from when they are around a month old, as they grow, mature, mate and while the females are pregnant – until their babies are weaned. Those ‘babies’ are then given the substance as they too grow to adults, are mated and again have babies. This continues until their babies are weaned.   

To gift cruelty-free this Mother’s Day, check out our online shop! 

Mothers bred for their babies to be shot 

 The cruel shooting industry purposefully breeds 60 million pheasants and partridges every year, so that they can be shot down by wealthy guns in the UK. Thousands of these birds, used for egg production, are confined for the whole of their productive lives inside cruel and oppressive metal battery cages, known as raised laying units. Their babies will then be taken away and used as feathered targets in the name of ‘sport’.  

Stand up for these poor animals and sign our petition to ban the shooting of birds. 

These are just some of the ways animal mothers are subjugated and abused. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Every small, everyday action you take can contribute to a more compassionate and respectful world for animals. Imagine a world where all mothers can express themselves as mums – living in peace, free from fear and exploitation. By choosing vegan options for your tea and cake, you can liberate animals and create a brighter future for them. 

For other ways to help, check out our Take Action page, or sign up to our e-newsletter for updates, and have a lovely Mother’s Day if you celebrate!