PETA Declares October "Slam McDonald's Month," Launches Massive Campaign Against Corporate Cruelty

More Than 300 Demonstrations Planned Around the World

Norfolk, Va. - After calling off two years of negotiations with McDonald's over its mistreatment of animals, PETA has now declared October "Slam McDonald's Month" because of the company's failure to make even the smallest improvements for the millions of animals it raises inhumanely and slaughters annually.

More than 300 demonstrations are planned at McDonald's restaurants around the world beginning October 16, as PETA launches a new, massive, international campaign against the company. Graphic in-your-face billboards and newspaper advertisements that read, "Do you want fries with that? McCruelty to go," above a picture of a slaughtered cow's head will be run to inform consumers about McDonald's failure to implement basic reforms in the way that animals are raised and killed for its restaurants.

McDonald's has refused to alleviate horrific conditions for chickens and pigs on its farms, despite a judicial ruling that found McDonald's "culpably responsible" for cruelty in half a dozen ways. To date, McDonald's has not even attempted to require slaughterhouses to meet humane standards of slaughter, as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture, and nor has it any mechanism in place to penalize slaughterhouses that consistently skin and dismember conscious animals.

McDonald's laying hens are still raised in cages so small that from four to seven hens share space not much larger than a file drawer and their cages are stacked in warehouses that hold as many as 100,000 hens. Although federal recommendations state that chickens should have at least 2 square feet of space, McDonald's allots just .55 square feet, which isn't even enough space for a chicken to spread even one wing. Breeding pigs raised for McDonald's are confined for their entire lives to cement stalls without straw or bedding, unable to turn around.

"McDonald's has a lot to be ashamed of-animals are treated pitifully and it chooses to look the other way," says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.