From Bruce Friedrich -
[email protected]
We are very pleased to announce that because of all your
amazing effort and hard work, we are able to declare a moratorium in the
Safeway Campaign! This is a significant step toward eliminating some of
the worst abuses that animals endure on factory farms as Safeway is the
first grocery store chain in U.S. history ever to do anything for farmed
animals.
Actually, Safeway is not just a major grocery chain.
Safeway is among the 50 largest U.S. corporations, with three times
McDonald�s U.S. revenues. Clearly, this is a wonderful victory. It shows
that society is changing because of agitation and exposure to these
issues and that it now recognizes that cruelty to those animals it
previously ignored is an important social issue. Our dream of a vegan
world is another step closer.
Safeway has pledged to immediately begin unannounced
audits of Seaboard Farms, the country�s fourth-largest pig-meat
supplier. This plan follows a PETA undercover investigation that ended
with four felony animal abuse charges leveled against Seaboard�s
manager. Read about PETA�s investigation here:
http://www.peta.org/feat/invest/index.html.
In addition to the immediate plans to audit Seaboard,
Safeway officials have pledged to enforce the new Food Marketing
Institute (FMI) guidelines when they are released. PETA has been working
with the FMI and its animal welfare panel for more than a year on
guidelines expected to be released in June. We are hopeful that these
guidelines will exceed those adopted by the fast-food giants. Safeway
has also pledged to conduct audits of all suppliers and to work with any
supplier that fails an audit to improve the conditions that led to the
failure and then to conduct another unannounced audit. If the supplier
fails again, Safeway will cut that supplier off. Safeway has pledged to
implement all guidelines within six to 18 months and to announce all of
its animal welfare plans publicly. Of course, the sooner, the better.
We have told Safeway that if the FMI guidelines are not
out before the end of June or if they are not at least as good as those
adopted by the fast-food chains, as we expect they will be, it will
still have to meet or exceed the fast-food guidelines. All indications
are that Safeway officials are serious, which is why we feel that we
should direct our attention, over the next month, to making sure that
the standards that they�re pledging to uphold are up to snuff and to
soliciting promises from Safeway�s main competitors that they, too, will
adopt and enforce the animal welfare guidelines when they come out in
June.
What more can you do? Please check the Shameway.com and
GoVeg.com Web sites over the next week. We will have addresses for
Safeway�s main competitors in the U.S. and Canada, as well as talking
points for letters that should be written to them, encouraging them to
follow Safeway�s lead. We will also have contact information for the
Food Marketing Institute and the National Council of Chain Restaurants
and will ask you to write to them, letting them know that any standards
lower than those adopted by McDonald�s, Burger King, and Wendy�s will
not be acceptable. We need to keep this momentum going!
We are so proud to know and work with so many
outstanding activists. Over the past few years, your efforts have truly
changed the national debate. Just two years ago, no corporation in the
U.S. had required a thing of its suppliers of farmed animals. Now, half
a dozen of the biggest corporations in the world have done so. What this
means in decreased suffering and abuse can�t be overstated.
But maybe a bigger result is that the shift in national
debate really begs the question, �Where do we get off eating these
feeling beings in the first place?� Once corporations begin treating
animals better, everyone is forced to consider that animals are not
automatons or widgets, that they have interests, needs, desires, and
more. As this consciousness grows, the vegan world we all want draws
nearer.
Thanks so much for all you�re doing. We will keep you
apprised of the situation as it develops. Please contact me if you have
any questions or concerns.
Go on to Call For Soy
Now
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