The 32-year-old "Place Beyond the Pines" star sent a letter earlier this week to the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF). In the letter, the actor implores the federation to cease the "barbaric practice" of dehorning cattle by choosing instead to breed hornless (aka polled) cows.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) published Gosling's letter, which was dated April 1 and addressed to Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of NMPF .
"I was shocked to learn from my friends at PETA about a practice in the dairy industry called 'dehorning,' which involves painfully burning horn tissue or gouging cows' horns out of their heads, often without the use of any painkillers," Gosling wrote. He added, "The American Veterinary Medical Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and third-party animal welfare auditing groups recognize the benefits of polled genetics for the dairy industry, so there is absolutely no reason -- and no excuse -- for the cruel, unnecessary practice of dehorning to continue."
PETA called Gosling their "hero" in 2011 after he wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, urging it to use carbon dioxide (aka "whole-house gassing") to make diseased chickens and turkeys unconscious before being killed. This technique differs from the "extremely cruel foam-based suffocation system" it was reportedly using at the time.
A year prior, the Ontario native had sent a letter to McDonald's on PETA's behalf, asking CEO Jim Skinner to stop scalding chickens to death in defeathering tanks and to use instead "controlled-atmosphere killing" to make the animals' deaths less painful.
And in both 2003 and in 2008, Gosling penned notes to Kentucky Fried Chicken in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, asking them to stop abusing their chickens by leaving them "crammed into dark sheds with countless other birds."
Ten years later, the Canadian hottie is still as thoughtful as ever.