HSUS Urges McDonald's to Stop Lagging Behind Burger King at Annual Shareholder Meeting

Nation's Largest Animal Welfare Organization Calls for Fast-Food Giant to Move Away from Worst Factory Farming Abuses

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

The HSUS is asking the company to adopt—at a minimum—the same improvements that its closest competitor, Burger King, recently implemented. Burger King has started phasing in the use of cage-free eggs and pork from producers that don't confine pigs in gestation crates. It has also implemented a purchasing preference for chicken meat from plants that use less inhumane slaughter methods.

Paul Shapiro, director of The HSUS' Factory Farming Campaign, stated, "McDonald's lack of action for seven years on this issue has left the company in a position where it is now lagging behind its competition. McDonald's needs to take concrete steps to reduce animal cruelty in its supply chain."

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.
• 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.
• Controlled Atmosphere Killing, a method of slaughter in which birds are deprived of oxygen, has been shown to cause significantly less suffering than the barbaric but commonplace practice of shacking birds upside down while fully conscious, paralyzing them in electrified vats of water, and dragging them over mechanical blades which cut their throats.

Timeline

• March 2007—Burger King announces that it has started phasing in the use of cage-free eggs and pork from producers that don't confine pigs in gestation crates, and that it is implementing a purchasing preference for chicken meat from plants that use Controlled Atmosphere Killing.
• March 2007—Wolfgang Puck announces the implementation of a wide-ranging program to improve animal welfare in his supply chain, including not using battery cage eggs or pork from crated sows.
• 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.
• January 2007—Smithfield Foods—a McDonald's supplier—and Maple Leaf Foods announce that they are phasing out their use of gestation crates to confine breeding pigs.
• January 2007—Burgerville becomes the first restaurant chain to implement an exclusively cage-free egg policy in all of its 39 locations.
• 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.
• 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).

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.