Victory: PETA Wins 'Shameway' Campaign!

On May 15, 2002, after more than 100 demonstrations spanning every state and province where Safeway operates, PETA called off its "Shameway" campaign when the company agreed to meet PETA's demands by implementing new animal welfare standards. In doing do, Safeway became the first grocery-store chain—and the first Fortune 500 company—in U.S. history to pledge to make much-needed improvements in the living and dying conditions of farmed animals.

Under PETA and Safeway's agreement, Safeway committed to immediately implementing unannounced audits at Seaboard Farms in Oklahoma, a major supplier of pig meat, where a PETA undercover investigator caught on videotape the fact that screaming pigs were beaten, bludgeoned, and slammed against the floor. Safeway has pledged to stop working with suppliers that fail audits, and the company continues to work cooperatively with PETA in order to improve the lives and deaths of the animals it sells.

Update: In 2008, following extensive further negotiations, Safeway and PETA announced a new agreement that made Safeway the industry leader on animal welfare. Safeway agreed to push its suppliers of chicken and turkey flesh to switch to a far less cruel method of slaughter. Safeway also agreed to purchase a significant amount of eggs and pig flesh from suppliers that don't confine animals to metal cages so small that they can barely move. To read about the agreement, please view the campaign history.

For information about PETA's current campaign against KFC—urging it to eliminate the worst abuses suffered by the more than 850 million chickens killed for its buckets each year—visit KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.