Campaigners are calling on theatre bosses to stop serving bacon, sausages and ham in their cafes – at least while Peppa Pig and her family are performing in the same building.
Grimsby Auditorium in Lincolnshire said this week it would remove pork from the menu when Peppa Pig’s Big Family Show opens next month, after a request from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta UK). The campaign group is sending the venue vegan ham as an alternative.
Jennifer White, an associate director at Peta, welcomed the decision, saying she hoped it would remind people “that all pigs are individuals with personalities and not body parts to be chopped up”.
Peppa Pig’s Big Family Show is touring the UK and Ireland until September. White said Peta contacted Grimsby after reviewing theatre menus and noticing a startling amount of pork. The venue agreed to the request, and Peta said it hoped others would follow suit.
In the letter to the theatre, Peta wrote: “As the fictional Pig family comes to life on stage, real pigs lose their lives for the bacon and sausage in your cafe. It’s a jarring contradiction: encouraging children to cheer for Peppa and her family one moment, then inviting them to eat the flesh of pigs the next.
An indoor commercial pig farm. Photograph: Farlap/Alamy
“Like Peppa and [baby sister] Evie, real pigs are playful, curious, and social. But on the UK’s industrial pig farms, most spend their entire short lives confined to filthy sheds without sunlight.”
The letter acknowledged that the show would not depict Peppa and Evie “convulsing in a gas chamber” but said “the products of this real-life suffering can be found in your cafe”.
The auditorium told Peta it would remove pork products from the Stage Door cafe menu as a “considerate gesture” during the show’s run on 3-4 March.
White said she hoped the Grimsby decision – and any similar moves elsewhere – would prompt meaningful conversations between parents and children about the ethics of eating animals. She encouraged families to order Peta’s free vegan starter kit, which features recipes and practical advice.
First broadcast in the UK in 2004, Peppa Pig is now shown in more than 180 territories and 40 languages.
When Evie Pig was born last year, Grazia published an interview with Mummy Pig in which she revealed the baby’s gender and speculated on what they might call her. “We’ve got SO many ideas for names,” she said. “Too many, frankly! Oink!”
Alongside more than 400 TV episodes and the touring stage show, the franchise includes Peppa Pig World in the New Forest, praised by Boris Johnson in 2021 in a rambling speech to the Confederation of British Industry.
Boris Johnson praises Peppa Pig in bizarre CBI speech – video
Urging business leaders to visit, he said: “I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place. It has very safe streets, discipline in schools, heavy emphasis on new mass transit systems. Even if they’re a bit stereotypical about Daddy Pig.”
White said she hoped all theatres and arts organisations would reflect on their menus.
In November, Peta said it had persuaded Chichester Festival theatre to drop pork products from its menus during a run of The Three Little Pigs.
