James Cromwell, PETA Demand End to Cruel Slaughter, Transport of Pigs and Chickens

For Immediate Release:
July 3, 2001

Vienna, Va. - James Cromwell, the Oscar nominated star of the movie Babe, along with five other protesters, was arrested today after entering a Vienna Wendy's and urging the lunchtime crowd to eat elsewhere until Wendy's stops confining sows to stalls so small that the animals cannot turn around and buying chickens with broken bones caused by mishandling. The actor and activists remain in police custody.

Wendy's has failed to answer letters and calls from PETA asking the company to:

• stop allowing chicken-catchers to break the birds' wings by slinging them into crates like inanimate objects


• require suppliers to stop genetically modifying chickens, which causes them to suffer chronic leg pain and collapse from overweight


• stop buying from factory farms where sows are tethered by the neck in cement stalls too small for them even to turn around in


• stop allowing its suppliers to cut off the beaks of baby chicks with a hot blade and to starve hens for up to two weeks in order to force them to produce more eggs

"After Babe, people recognized that pigs and other animals abused on factory farms are sensitive, gentle animals. It is high time that big corporations like Wendy's stopped treating these wonderful animals like meat machines," says Cromwell.

Last September, PETA suspended its campaign against McDonald's after the company agreed to conduct unannounced slaughterhouse audits, stop purchasing from suppliers that fail them, increase the living space for laying hens, stop severing hens' beaks, and stop starving chickens in order to force them to produce more eggs. Last Thursday, PETA halted its six-month campaign against Burger King when the company announced that it would exceed McDonald's animal welfare guidelines.