James Cromwell Calls for Safeway Boycott

Safeway was the first grocery chain to take PETA's cruelty-free pledge more than 10 years ago, meaning that its brand-name products were not tested on animals. On that animal issue, Safeway was ahead of the curve. But now Safeway has failed consumers of conscience by refusing to pledge to improve the wretched plight of animals raised and killed for its shelves and freezer cases. PETA is calling on Safeway and all its subsidiaries, including Vons and Pavilions, to follow the leads of the fast-food giants, McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's, by adopting animal welfare standards. Until they do, I urge all compassionate Americans to join our campaign to compel them to make those changes.

Addressing the U.S. Senate last year, Sen. Robert Byrd decried the fact that the Humane Slaughter Act, passed decades ago, is still not enforced. This means that animals are routinely still conscious and aware when their throats are slit; it means that hundreds of millions of chickens and pigs are still conscious when they are put into the scalding tanks for feather and hair removal; it means that pigs are castrated, their teeth removed, and their tails chopped off, all without painkillers; and it means that chickens are crammed into stinking sheds, where they grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs, and limbs can't keep up with their fast-growing bodies.

In my opinion, Vons, Pavilions, and Safeway—what they are doing to animals sucks. If the American public were aware of the cruelty meted out to animals in the process of making food sold in these stores, they would be outraged. To think that dogs and cats would go through the same things, which in some parts of the world they do, there would be an outrage. I believe [that] there should be an outrage for the cruelty meted out to the billions of animals killed every year to stock the shelves of Safeway, Vons, and Pavilions and that they need to be held to account so that they can change these practices.

Thank you.