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.

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:

1. Commit to one day no meat. If you're doing that easily, please add one additional day.
2. If you're on Facebook, suggest that your friends join my new group:
   "Power of One: Become a VIP."




C OMPASSIONATE
C ARNIVORES ^™