PETA to Protest Outside La Jolla Restaurant; Will You Eat There Again?

In an effort to protest ingredients allegedly used from mutilated cows, PETA plans to cover the sidewalk outside of La Jolla's California Pizza Kitchen (NASDAQ: CPKI) with chalk drawings of the mistreated animals on Wednesday afternoon. The protest tactic comes on the heels of a San Diego jury’s acquittal of a man who chalked anti-bank slogans on sidewalks.

PETA attests that CPK’s uses cheese from mutilated cows. In its latest action, PETA calls for the restaurant and frozen food maker to ask its cheese suppliers to phase out dehorning, a process where calves' horn tissue is removed with a hot iron or caustic paste. (If you want to see or hear more about this process, watch this PETA video. Please note it contains graphic content.) The animal adovacy group said this procedure can be avoided by breeding for naturally hornless or "polled," cows.

"PETA will use everything at our disposal to call on California Pizza Kitchen to help phase out dehorning, whether that means hitting the streets with protest signs or hitting the sidewalk with protest artwork," said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a statement. "California Pizza Kitchen has the power to make a world of difference for baby cows who currently face the excruciating pain of having their sensitive horn tissue burned off."

CPK did not immediately respond to call for comment.

The La Jolla CPK is located on Nobel Drive near Best Buy, DSW and Staples. The protest was scheduled to start at 3 p.m.