from [email protected]
Burger King Complies With Demand for Improved Animal
Welfare Standards
Norfolk, Va. - PETA's "Murder King" Campaign, which has
involved provocative ads, celebrity support from Alec Baldwin, James
Cromwell, and Richard Pryor, and more than 800 protests at Burger King
restaurants worldwide, has been called off following the fast-food
giant's announcement today that it will exceed the animal welfare
standards that PETA negotiated with McDonald's last year after similar
protests. PETA is now eyeing other chains, such as Wendy's, as possible
targets for animal welfare improvements.
Under Burger King's new guidelines, the company:
* will conduct unannounced inspections of its
slaughterhouses and take action against those facilities that fail the
inspections
* will establish animal-handling verification guidelines
for all cattle, swine,and poultry slaughterhouses
* will give laying hens 75 square inches of cage space
(3 inches more than McDonald's agreed to) and require that the birds be
able to stand fully upright
* will require two water drinkers per cage
* will stop purchasing from suppliers who force-molt
(starve chickens to force them to lay more eggs)
* will develop auditing procedures for the handling of
broiler chickens
* will institute humane-handling procedures for chickens
at the slaughterhouse
* will begin purchasing pork from farms that do not
confine sows to stalls
* has petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
enforce the Humane Slaughter Act
Says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, "The only way to
avoid cruelty in meat production is to go vegetarian, but today Burger
King has taken giant steps to improve the lives of millions of animals.
We are ending our Burger King protest and examining other chains, such
as Wendy's, as potential targets for improvements in animal welfare."
For more information, including videos of animals in
factory-farm conditions, visit PETA's MurderKing.com Web site.
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