PETA's McDonald's Shareholder Statement

Hello. My name is Dr. Steven Gross. I would like to ask a question on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' more than 700,000 members worldwide.

While McDonald's publicly claims to care about animal welfare, a look at company practices reveals how hollow these words really are. Despite the public relations pronouncements, animals raised for McDonald's are forced to lead short, miserable lives and die violent deaths in order to become Big Macs and McNuggets.

Notwithstanding PETA's repeated requests, McDonald's still buys eggs from hens who are cruelly raised in violation of all their natural behaviors on crowded "factory farms." In fact, McDonald's suppliers use a battery cage system where up to seven hens are stuffed into one tiny wire mesh cage. The hens are denied even the paltry amount of space necessary to allow them to spread one wing. And, by the time they're shipped to slaughter, it is estimated that about 90 percent of them are crippled or have broken bones. The conditions under which these chickens are raised are so appalling that the European Union has ruled against the use of battery cages. McDonald's in the United Kingdom claims that 90 percent of its eggs come from free-range hens. We are asking McDonald's in the United States to eliminate a great deal of animal suffering by at least meeting its own U.K. standard.

Additionally, pigs raised for McDonald's live their entire lives, in many cases, in cement stalls, unable even to turn around. Pregnant sows are tethered to the front of iron grills, unable to lie down comfortably or to do what all mothers naturally ache to do: nuzzle their babies. These "iron maidens" are considered such devices of torture that they are being phased out across the world, yet McDonald's finds no fault with them.

Recently, McDonald's has taken steps regarding its slaughterhouse practices and gathering of broiler chickens. We commend those long overdue advances. However, it is still true that cows and pigs raised for the company continue to go through slaughter kicking and screaming and are often skinned and dismembered while fully conscious. The answer to this horror is simple and has been recommended by your own expert, Dr. Temple Grandin: Slow down your slaughter lines, and hire a second stunner on the kill line. If McDonald's continues to refuse to act, such a failure will belie all the wonderful words about the company's commitment to animal welfare.

For more than two years, PETA has waited for McDonald's to take significant steps toward ending the suffering of the animals slaughtered for its restaurants. We applaud the few things it has done but ask that it do much, much more. We ask that the company commit to:

1. a plan to eliminate battery cages for laying hens;
2. a plan to eliminate dry sow stalls for breeding pigs;
3. implementing unannounced slaughterhouse audits of all plants, including chicken plants, with a goal of achieving 100 percent stunning efficacy.

Last year, you told me personally that McDonald's wants to be a leader in the area of animal welfare reform. McDonald's is a company with more than 30 billion dollars in gross annual revenues. The steps we're requesting are no more than legal requirements in Europe and no more than the bare minimum as far as decent treatment of animals goes.

Will McDonald's do the right thing and reduce animal suffering by making these basic reforms?