PETA's letter to Safeway's CEO

February 5, 2002

Steven Burd, CEO
Safeway, Inc.
5918 Stoneridge Mall Rd.
Pleasanton, CA 94588-3229

2 pages via fax: 925-467-3230

Dear Mr. Burd:

On behalf of ethical consumers and caring people across North America, I am writing to express our disappointment that Safeway has chosen to so thoroughly ignore the suffering of the animals slaughtered for Safeway Select, Lucerne, and your other products (e.g., Dominick's, Carrs, Vons, etc.).

Over the past 16 months, PETA has spoken repeatedly with Mr. Brian Dowling in your public affairs department, and some of these conversations once seemed promising. For example, last June, Mr. Dowling told us that Safeway "cannot dodge the issue of animal welfare," "must respond to PETA's concerns," and wants to "raise the bar for animal welfare."

However, the letters we've received from Safeway have been far from reassuring. First, we were told that Safeway cares only about safety and sanitation (November 16, 2000). Then we were told that Safeway isn't willing to require anything at all of its suppliers, preferring instead to defer all questions to a trade group with no enforcement powers (November 15, 2001). This is especially disturbing to the many of us who have long chosen Safeway over other grocery chains, because it was the first, in 1991, to promise not to test cosmetics and household products on animals.

It is morally reprehensible that Safeway has chosen to ignore its suppliers' abuse of farmed animals, sloughing the issue off onto the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), a trade group of 1,500 food retailers. Of course, any institution with 1,500 corporate members is going to make decisions at a slow pace, and such an organization has no enforcement capability regarding any recommendations it might develop (otherwise, it would violate antitrust laws).

However much we respect Karen Brown at FMI, and we do respect her, she can only make recommendations, and those must be approved by a coalition of corporations that are vested in supporting the status quo.

Mr. Burd, Safeway has three times the American revenues of McDonald's. Safeway operates 19 meat and dairy plants. Your consumers are, largely, in areas of the country with perhaps the highest awareness of and sensitivity to animal cruelty. Safeway can ill afford a boycott focused on animal suffering and abuse.

But that's what you've got. As of today, PETA is calling on all caring consumers to boycott Safeway and its subsidiaries until you agree, at the very least, to adopt the minimal animal welfare reforms spelled out on our Shameway.com Web site, which is active as of today.

Please note that we will be targeting Dominick's in Chicago, Randalls in Houston, Vons and Pavilions in Southern California, Carrs in Alaska, Genuardi's in Philadelphia, Tom Thumb in Dallas, and Safeway in the other 15 states and four Canadian provinces where you operate. A Safeway store manager who is concerned about animal welfare has given us a complete list of every Safeway and subsidiary in North America. There are well-developed activist groups in all the major cities where Safeway operates, and they will all assist PETA in publicizing the problems and the boycott.

I will be dropping our "Safeway Is Cruel to Animals" video by your office, as well as a news release announcing PETA's boycott. You can also view the video on our Shameway.com Web site. You'll notice that we have posters and leaflets ready for Safeway as well as for all of your subsidiaries.

What we ask, and have asked all along, is not unreasonable. We are not asking that Safeway stop selling brand-name items. We are not even asking Safeway to bring its suppliers up to European levels. We are only asking that Safeway eliminate some of the most egregious abuses.

I hope you will review our Shameway.com Web site and then give me a call at 202-320-3909. I'll be in the Bay Area until February 15 and would be happy to come by your office. Our hope remains that Safeway will see that animals, and the consumers who care about their well-being, count.

Sincerely,

Bruce G. Friedrich
Senior Campaign Coordinator

cc: Brian Dowling, Safeway
Karen Brown, FMI
Dr. Steven Gross, Steven J. Gross & Associates
Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University
Terrie Dort, NCCR