PETA polled Burger King's Animal Welfare Panel and Wrote to Burger King's CEO: The Entire Panel Agrees with PETA

April 17, 2001

Mr. John Dasburg, CEO
Burger King Corp.
17777 Old Cutler Rd.
Miami, FL 33157

Dear Mr. Dasburg:

I hope that you are settling into your new position at the helm of Burger King and that your first few weeks have been productive. I am writing to let you know that PETA has polled your entire animal welfare panel, and they all agree that Burger King, and the industry as a whole, should implement McDonald's animal welfare guidelines right now and that Burger King should dump the pathetic industry guidelines (which discount animal welfare altogether) into the trash where they belong. Since Burger King went to all the trouble of convening an animal welfare panel, please do me the courtesy of explaining why it isn't following the panel's recommendations.

Since Burger King sent out a news release on the first day of your tenure, it occurs to me that there is a slim chance that you asked for such a statement in good faith. Perhaps you're not aware of what a total fraud it is. Burger King's statement to the media, claiming that the animal welfare guidelines are similar to McDonald?s is just plain wrong (see attached). And Burger King's refusal to sever ties with slaughterhouses that fail audits, which are to begin at some unspecified time in the future, in no way approximates what McDonald's is doing.

Burger King's statement, far from meeting PETA's challenge or McDonald's standards, does nothing to improve life for even one of the miserable animals your new company profits from. Since PETA first contacted Burger King in October, it has been saying all along what it announced as "new" in its April 2 news release. (See the "PETA and Burger King" link at www.MurderKing.com; Burger King made identical statements in its October 2000 letters to PETA).

I am attaching our formal response to Burger King's April 2 news release. Please allow me to summarize: All we're asking from Burger King is a good faith promise to do as much as McDonald's to alleviate animal suffering. Since the leader of Burger King's panel, Dr. Temple Grandin, is also the leader of McDonald's panel, it seems that this is the least that Burger King can do if it wishes to be taken seriously at all on the issue of animal welfare.

Sincerely,

Bruce G. Friedrich
Vegan Campaign Coordinator