PETA Launches Safeway Boycott

For Immediate Release:
February 5, 2002

PETA LAUNCHES SAFEWAY BOYCOTT

Grocery Giant Fails to Meet Minimum Standards for Raising and Killing Animals: Shocking Video Footage Tells Story of Cruelty

San Francisco — After refusing to match minimum animal welfare standards adhered to by McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's—all of which bowed to PETA pressure for more humane treatment of animals raised and slaughtered to fill the fast-food chains' menus?Safeway finds itself the latest target of a boycott by PETA and San Francisco-based Food and Social Justice Project (FSJP). PETA will formally announce the boycott and will show broadcast-quality footage of Safeway's abusive animal practices at a news conference on February 6 in San Francisco, near Safeway's Pleasanton headquarters.

Date: Wednesday, February 6
Time: 12 noon
Place: Serrano Hotel, 405 Taylor St.

PETA attempted to negotiate with Safeway executives for 16 months prior to its announcement of a boycott. Yet, despite the U.S. Senate's recent condemnation of slaughterhouse conditions, Safeway has refused to take steps to ensure that its suppliers are not dismembering fully conscious animals or engaging in other abuses.

Hens raised for Safeway are crowded into cages so small that they can't so much as stretch one wing. To keep the hens from pecking each other due to the stress of intensive confinement, suppliers slice off the birds' beaks with searing blades. Breeding sows are confined to concrete stalls no larger than their bodies, forcing the animals to lie nearly motionless for months on end.

"We have undercover footage from one Safeway supplier showing pigs being beaten, kicked, slammed to the floor, and bludgeoned with hammers," says Bruce Friedrich, PETA's Vegan Campaign coordinator. "We alerted Safeway to these abuses, but the company continues to buy from the same cruel supplier."

Safeway, a Fortune 50 company, is one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S. Safeway has U.S. sales three times greater than McDonald's and operates 1,750 stores in 20 states and four Canadian provinces.