Change is Coming

Gestation Crates

• In 2006 two of our VIPs were instrumental, as plaintiffs in a court case, in closing down a pig breeding operation using gestation crates in California.
• The largest US pork producer, Smithfield Foods, announced that they will phase out all gestation crates & replace them with group housing pens over the next decade.
• Maple Leaf Foods, the largest Canadian pork producer, announced that they will follow Smithfield's lead in phasing out gestation crates.

Cage-Free Eggs

• California, Michigan & Maine passed laws phasing out cage confinement of laying hens.
• Trader Joes introduced their own brand of cage-free eggs. Even Costco carries cage-free eggs now!
• Many other supermarket chains have taken steps to increase their sales of cage-free eggs, including Whole Foods, Winn-Dixie, & Safeway.
• Other national restaurant chains include Wendy’s, Denny's, Red Robin, & Quiznos have also started using cage-free eggs.

Humane Standards

• Wolfgang Puck, internationally known Los Angeles chef, announced that he would use eggs & meat only from animals raised under strict humane standards.
• McDonald's & Burger King imposed some guidelines for their meat & egg suppliers: extra water, wing-room & fresh air for egg-laying hens; mandatory electric-shock stunning of pigs & cattle before slaughter.
• Burger King said it would favor suppliers who did not confine their chickens & pigs in cages & crates, & the company said that it would also favor suppliers of chickens that use gas, or "controlled-atmospheric stunning," rather than electric shocks to knock birds unconscious before slaughter. (Controlled-atmospheric stunning is considered a more humane method, though only a handful of slaughterhouses use it).
• Whole Foods Market plans to introduce a multi-tiered rating system on its meat & poultry that focuses on specific measures of animal treatment.
• Hardee's & Carl's Jr. has agreed to implement animal welfare measures in the operation of their restaurants.
• Humane Society of the US works for fundamental reforms. In 2009, they passed legislation in California to ban tail docking of dairy cows.
• HSUS undercover investigations exposed "awful cruelty at factory farms & slaughterhouses & shut down the worst operators, pulling back the curtain on the endemic cruelty in industrialized agribusiness & setting the stage for broader reform."

2010

• Hellmann's mayonnaise a company that uses hundreds of millions of eggs annually in North America, announced it has converted all of Hellmann’s Light to cage-free (meaning approximately 125,000 fewer hens in battery cages), & is committed to converting the rest of Hellmann’s mayonnaise to cage-free as well, meaning well more than a million fewer birds will never know the confines of a battery cage.
• The Subway® restaurant chain, with more than 32,000 locations worldwide & more U.S. restaurants than any other quick-service restaurant chain, will begin phasing in the use of cage-free eggs.
• Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest grocer, announced that all of its private brand of eggs are now cage free.

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The opposition to factory farming practices is growing. Please do your part to help factory-farmed animals.

Commit to taking one extra step to change the lives of these animals suffering every day on factory farms:

• Commit to one day no meat. If you're doing that easily, please add one additional day.
• If you're on Facebook, suggest that friends join our group:  "Become a VIP - Veggie In Progress"