People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is stepping up its "McCruelty" campaign against McDonald's Corp. over its U.S. chicken slaughtering methods, this time targeting children.
PETA is promoting the European method of slaughtering chickens by gassing them first rather than the conventional method in the United States. PETA claims the former induces less suffering and is targeting McDonald's as well as KFC Corp.
Its latest tactic against McDonald's includes handing out "Unhappy Meals" to children outside of McDonald's restaurants across the country, according to a story by FOX23 News. The Unhappy Meals contain a knife-wielding Ronald McDonald and bloody rubber chickens, angering parents who say PETA is unfairly targeting their kids. PETA activitists defended their methods, saying children can handle the imagery and that the group targets them because they "naturally empathize" with animals.
Bob Langert, vice president of corporate social responsibility for McDonald's Corp., released the following statement regarding the company's animal welfare practices, as reported by Midlothian Exchange:
McDonald's expects humane treatment of animals by our suppliers in every part of the world where we do business. McDonald's requires our food suppliers to do the right thing — for animals, for humans, and for the environment. Our goal has always been to lead the industry by bringing about improvements in animal welfare including rigorous, ongoing audits of our suppliers' facilities.McDonald's works with leading independent animal welfare experts and makes decisions based upon science to promote continuous improvement in animal welfare as part of our broader sustainable supply chain initiatives.McDonald's continues to support our chicken suppliers' use of both controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) and electrical stunning. There is no conclusive scientific consensus that one practice is better than the other, however, we recognize that in either method, good management practices are critical.It is also important to note that in the U.S., there are no large-scale chicken producers that currently use the CAS method, therefore demands to purchase chickens from this method to meet McDonald's supply needs are not viable.
