10/29/2026
🖖🐄🌹 Sir Patrick Stewart, the legendary actor and activist, died yesterday at the age of 86.
He wasn't vegan, but he was a devoted champion for animals in need, especially pit bulls. He and his wife Sunny fostered several rescued pit bulls, and in 2021 the ASPCA named him its Pit Bull Advocate & Protector of the year.
When Star Trek: Picard premiered in January 2020, he told Stephen Colbert why he insisted that Picard's dog be a pit bull. Breed-specific legislation in the UK had kept him from adopting his foster dog Ginger, and he pushed back on the stereotype, noting that dogs of every breed have been involved in incidents. It was at this juncture that he left us with this enduring quote:
"These are the sweetest, most empathic, most sensitive creatures that I've ever known."
He was speaking about pit bulls. But the first animals that came to mind when we saw this quote were cows, gentle giants who are perfectly content to graze peacefully in verdant fields.
Despite their kind, gentle nature, humanity raises, tortures, and murders nearly 300 million cows every year. These sensitive beings endure lives of exploitation and pain. In the dairy industry, farmers kidnap baby cows from their mothers shortly after birth, and the mothers often bellow for days, crying out for their babies. Cows raised for their flesh are branded, castrated, and dehorned, often without pain relief, and are killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan.
Sir Patrick once admitted that he used to associate pit bulls with aggression and violence. Then he met Sadie, the senior pit bull next door, and he spent the rest of his life fighting for dogs like her. To many people, cows are food, objects to be used and abused for the sake of our appetites.
We challenge you to see cows as the thinking, feeling, sentient beings they are, not as commodities for human consumption, and to extend the compassion Sir Patrick showed pit bulls to all animals.
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick. Our hearts are with Sunny, his family, everyone who loved him, and all the animals still crying out for compassion.
