Humane Society of the U.S. to Urge Kroger to Improve Animal Welfare Policies at Annual Shareholder Meeting

Nation's Largest Animal Welfare Organization Calls for Retail Chain to Move Away from Worst Factory Farming Abuses

At the Kroger shareholder meeting tomorrow, a representative of The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal welfare group and a Kroger shareholder, will urge the company to improve its animal welfare policies.

The HSUS is asking the company to join a number of other major corporations in moving away from sales of eggs from caged hens.

Paul Shapiro, senior director of The HSUS's Factory Farming Campaign, stated, "Kroger is still selling eggs from birds confined in cages so small they can't even spread their wings and pork from producers who confine breeding sows in tiny crates. The company should take concrete steps to reduce this type of animal cruelty in its supply chain."

Kroger's online animal welfare statement claims that it follows the egg industry's voluntary guideline program. This program, "United Egg Producers Certified," allows some of the worst factory farm abuses imaginable, including cramming hens in barren battery cages so that each bird has less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper on which to live for more than a year.
 
Prior to being called "United Egg Producers Certified," the program was called "Animal Care Certified." The Better Business Bureau, 16 state attorneys general, and the Washington, D.C., attorney general believed that calling the UEP guidelines "Animal Care Certified" was misleading advertising because the logo implied a higher care of animal welfare than actually exists.

Facts

• U.S. factory farms confine nearly 300 million hens in barren battery cages that are so small, the birds can't even spread their wings. Each bird has less space than a single sheet of paper on which to live.
  
• There is a snowballing national movement against battery cages. Burger King is beginning to use cage-free eggs. Wolfgang Puck is ending his use of cage eggs. Several grocery chains, including Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, have stopped selling cage eggs. Companies such as AOL and Google have ended the use of cage eggs in their employee cafeterias.
  
• Cage-free hens generally have 250-300 percent more space per bird and are able to engage in more of their natural behaviors than are caged hens. While cage free hens may not be able to go outside, they are able to walk, spread their wings, and lay their eggs in nests—all behaviors permanently denied to hens confined in battery cages.
  
• Gestation crates are two-foot-wide metal cages that confine millions of breeding pigs for nearly their entire lives. The crates are so restrictive that the animals can't even turn around for months on end. The animals suffer both leg and joint problems along with psychosis from this extreme treatment.

Timeline

June 2007—Winter Springs, Fla., becomes the fifth city following Berkeley, Calif., New Port Richey, Fla., West Hollywood, Calif., and Takoma Park, Md., to unanimously pass a bill condemning battery cages and encouraging egg consumers not to purchase eggs from caged hens.

March 2007—Burger King announces that it has started phasing in the use of cage-free eggs.

March 2007—Wolfgang Puck announces that he is ending the use of cage eggs in his entire supply chain.

March 2007—Congressmembers Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) introduce the Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act, which requires animal producers supplying federal programs with meat, dairy, and eggs to comply with a moderate set of animal welfare standards.

November 2006—In a landslide, Arizona voters pass an HSUS-led initiative banning gestation crates and veal crates in the state (effective 2013).

September 2006—Ben & Jerry's announces that it is phasing out the use of eggs from caged hens in its ice creams.

November 2005—Trader Joe's switches its private-line eggs to cage-free.

May 2005—Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Natural Marketplace announce that they have ended sales of eggs from caged hens.

November 2003—The Better Business Bureau rules that it is misleading to label eggs from battery-caged hens as "Animal Care Certified."

November 2002—Florida voters overwhelmingly approve an HSUS-led measure banning gestation crates in the state (effective 2008).

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization—backed by 10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty—on the web at humanesociety.org.