Improvement for Farmed Animals in the South! July 17, 2008

Posted by Marta at July 17, 2008 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 10 ) | TrackBack

Good news, people! After more than five months of negotiations with PETA, grocery-store chain Winn-Dixie has announced that it will improve conditions for some chickens, turkeys, and pigs in its supply chain. You can find Winn-Dixie's 520 stores throughout the states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana.

According to its new plan, Winn-Dixie will do the following:

• Give purchasing preference to suppliers that use or switch to controlled-atmosphere killing (the least-cruel method of bird slaughter, for those who don't know) and begin purchasing five percent of its turkeys by the end of 2010 from suppliers that use this method.
• Give purchasing preference to suppliers that don't use gestation crates—restrictive metal enclosures that confine pregnant pigs—and increase the total amount of pig meat that it purchases from crate-free facilities by five percent over each of the next three years (to reach a total of 15 percent).
• Give purchasing preference to producers of cage-free eggs, increase the amount of cage-free eggs that it sells to four percent by the end of 2009 and five percent by the end of 2010, and work toward increasing that amount to 10 percent within the next five years. They are also going to more heavily promote their cage-free eggs in the stores so as to boost sales of them (in turn lowering sales of eggs from caged hens).

It seems like every time I turn around there's another improvement for farmed animals. It's really amazing. Winn-Dixie is following in the footsteps of other major grocery and restaurant companies—including Safeway, Harris Teeter, Burger King, Carl's Jr., and Hardee's—all of whom have recently made animal welfare improvements after working with PETA.

Now this doesn't mean the animals are going to live wonderful lives, of course, but some of the worst abuses have been eliminated, which is always a good thing. One step at a time.

To thank Winn-Dixie, you can drop them a line through their on-line customer service form.

♥ Marta

Adidas Scores, Big Time, for Australian Sheep! June 4, 2008

Posted by Ryan at June 4, 2008 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 22 ) | TrackBack

We are proud to announce yet another victory for Australian sheep! Adidas—the second-largest sporting-goods manufacturer in the world—has just taken steps to reduce the suffering of sheep in its supply chain.

Following nearly four months of discussions with PETA, Adidas has now decided to boycott all wool from mulesed lambs—including those mulesed using clips.

As you may already know, mulesing is a standard mutilation used by Australian woolgrowers, in which lambs have huge chunks of skin and flesh carved from their backsides with big, metal shears (like gardening shears). This is a crude attempt to "protect" sheep from maggot infestation, despite the fact that humane methods exist.

Could you imagine having part of your butt cut off with a giant pair of scissors? OUCH!

The decision really makes Australia's Federal Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, look like a fool. It was just one week ago that he sent a letter to Adidas, thanking them for supporting Australian wool and trying to justify their cruel mulesing ways. Sucks to be him! :)

Anyways, if you haven't already had a chance to sign our petition against mulesing, make sure to sign it!

Let's keep the pressure on them, so that no more butts get cut!

- Ryan!