Beef Magazine

HSUS pushing McDonald’s for cage-free eggs, PETA’s euthanasia policy

Amanda Nolz March 31st, 2009

It’s not a secret that PETA and HSUS are no friends to farmers and ranchers. Instead of supporting food producers that dedicate their lives to feeding the world, they are driven to make our jobs as difficult as possible in order to eventually push us all out of business. While they continue to make gains in their efforts, I feel there are ways we can slow them down. By keeping in close communication with our representatives and senators, educating the media and keeping in close contact with our consumers, we can work together to tell our side of the story. However, we first have to know what these animal rights activists are up to. I have included a few articles today worth discussing, and I’m anxious to hear your thoughts on our best course of action.



The first article is from writer Barry Estabrook at Gourmet. His column is titled, “Politics of the Plate: McDonald’s eggs to go cage-free?” It seems McDonald’s is getting pressured to change its food purchasing policies. The Humane Society plans to put the squeeze on the fast-food giant over its use of eggs from caged chickens. The HSUS announced last week that it would introduce a resolution at a McDonald’s shareholder meeting in May requesting that the fast-food chain use only cage-free eggs. Quizno’s has already changed their policy to purchase cage-free eggs, and I’m concerned about the implications of food production if McDonald’s follows suit. What do you think about this issue? How should food producers respond?

The second article of the day deals with PETA. While I have heard talks about PETA’s euthanasia policy for years, I’m excited to see its traction once again on the internet. Media outlets and bloggers are outraged to hear that in 2008, PETA euthanized 95% of the animals in their care. You can check out the full press release at The Center for Consumer Freedom. The press releasereveals the facts about this hypocritical animal rights group’s 2008 pet death toll of 21,339 animals. Despite having a $32 million budget, PETA does not operate an adoption shelter. PETA employees make no discernible effort to find homes for the thousands of pets they kill every year. Last year, the Center for Consumer Freedom petitioned Virginia’s State Veterinarian to reclassify PETA as a slaughterhouse.

Let’s work together to stay informed and be proactive on some of these issues. Now is the time to start connecting with those in politics, the media and at the grocery store. We need to work to secure the future of food production, and it’s time to team together with all sectors of the industry to get the job done. Let’s start the discussion today!

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9 Comments to “HSUS pushing McDonald’s for cage-free eggs, PETA’s euthanasia policy”

1. Charles Phelps Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 8:49 am

   Can anybody prove the chickens don’t like the cage?

2. Sam Johnson Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 9:26 am

   We must recognize PETA and HSUSA for what they are and demand that our government treat them accordingly. PETA and HSUSA promote themselves, and solicit funding, as a tax free charitable organizations caring for poor neglected animals, which we know they are not! These are not charitable organizations but political organizations funded by fraudulent misrepresentations of their charge. These organizations need to be treated and recognized by the government the same as the Democratic Party, The Republican Party, and all other Political Action organizations. Specifically their tax free deductibility of donations must be stopped. These organizations are unregulated by the government, while subsidized by government tax policy, which was designed for truly charitable functions.

   How is it that a “charity” can take money donated, tax free, for the care of animals and buy stock in companies in order to dictate company policy? How is it that funds donated for the care of animals can be used to fund political campaigns Such as California prop 2.? How is it that charitable funds can be used to lobby State and Federal governments to advance political agendas.

   These organizations are funded by citizens who are probably unaware of how their monies are being used. Do they know that their donations are being used to kill unwanted animals rather than care for them? Where is the government duty to protect the citizens from this fraudulent activity. Both of these organizations use charitable donations, subsidized by government tax policy, to lobby for evermore government regulation on our industry, I suggest that, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and they should be subject to the same government regulation and scrutiny that they propose for others.

3. Curtis Moore Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 11:11 am

   For around 25 years, my family operated a two house poultry operation consisting of around 100,000 laying hens that were caged. The majority of eggs produced in the US are caged, in switching over to cage-free, this would require poultry producers to completely redo their houses. For most it would be more affordable to simply build new ones and leave the old to rot. We considered this when Cal-Maine Foods decided to move out of our area and prematurely cut our contact to produce for them two years before it was set to end.

   As we tried to decide what to do, the cost were going to be extensive to redo our houses as well as building new ones. We try to never extend ourselves financially, and always try to pay extra towards principal on all of our loans, so we choose not to switch. However if you would like cage-free organic eggs, you might want to know that most likely menu prices will rise about 25 cents each.

   Therefore, we left our houses vacant and purchased an addition 100 head of commercial Simmental & Angus moma’s.

   In regards to PETA’s slaughtering, isn’t it amazing that they don’t promote that? Perhaps PETA should do a multi-million dollar ad campaign like their “I’d rather go naked then wear fur” and put pictures of all the slaughtered pets saying “We’d rather kill them than find them loving homes… please don’t tell your friends, we don’t want them to know how many thousands of animals we slaughter each year”

   Most that donate to PETA, and support them don’t know where they really set on issues and what they are doing. They think that they are helping these animals, but in return they are simply causing more harm to them. Seriously, many people would love to adopt one of these 28,000 animals they put down, but have no chance to do so.

4. Tim Gieseke Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 1:28 pm

   People spend money on their values and people seek ways to provide those values - that is the invisible hand of economics. Of course, we can advertise to change those values, but that is often an uphill battle. Regardless of how we farmers think things should be done and think that others can not grow enough food, it really all depends on how far people want to take their values. Farmers has long chuckled at the ignorance of people not knowing where there food comes from. Now they are finding out and some are even growing food themselves. That will be wonderful for agriculture. We farmers know how much can be grown on a quarter acre of land and how much sun and labor that does take.
   If McDonalds decides it will only sell free range laid eggs, then the transition will begin. I would rather see this process occur rather than it happening at the legislative process. I would assume that another restaurant would capitalize on the lower priced eggs for those with less discerning food production values. Of course, this transition would prove very costly to those leveraged extensively in cage-only eggs. The world changes, so don’t but all your eggs in one basket.

5. Bill Dunlap Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 2:22 pm

   For 15 years my mom worked for a local Humane Society. It was local, they took in huge numbers of strays and problem dogs and cats. Any that were not in good health were put down in 96 hours. Everything else was kept a minimum of 2 weeks and then only healthly,young animals or neutered animals were offered for adoption. They did the best they could on a limited budget. A local “No Kill” shelter only takes in a few a month and keeps everything, regardless of health. Those they turn away end up at the HUSOM and they do kill, or truned loose. Another, local well meaning lady, was found to have over 700 dogs, cats, reptiles, chickens and at least two monkeys in an old barn. Horrid sanitation, poor food and no health care, but as she told the paper “I take anything and I don’t kill.”
   I the laws introduced to prevent transportion of horses for slaughter, we may have a huge stray horse problem on our hands. While I love horses and have owned a bunch, I can’t eat them, so what do you do with the surplus?
   Bill Dunlap
   Roseboro, NC

6. Nelson Lackey Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 2:31 pm

   I am from rural florida and I have always been taught to love and respect the environment. Animals are part of that environment. I have never been so upset as when I see and hear what the “humane” society is doing as well as peta. I am a loyal member of P.E.T.A. (people eating tasty animals) I will do all I can to spread the word as much as I can to let everybody know what these two disgusting organizations really stand for. I got our current pet from animal control from which they do considerable work to see that the pets are adopted. All while existing on very little funding. Only after a perscribed length of time and no takers are any put down. I hate any are put down. But we as a society are not concerned with throwaway animals.

7. Lianne Turner Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 2:34 pm

   It’s disingenuous, to say the least, for the deceitfully-named Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) to complain about the number of unwanted and suffering animals whom PETA has been forced to euthanize because their guardians requested it, or because no good homes exist for them.

   You should already know that CCF is a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year, not out of compassion, but out of greed. CCF promotes meat-eating and defends corporations that send billions of cows, chickens, pigs, and other animals to terrifying, gruesome, and painful deaths in slaughterhouses.

   PETA handled far more animals than 2,124 in 2008. In fact, we took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats, spaying and neutering all of them at low to no cost. We gave them shots, fixed their wounds and treated their illnesses, and returned them to the community. Most of the animals we took in and euthanized could hardly be called “pets,” as they had spent their lives on heavy chains, for instance. They were unsocialized, never having been inside a building of any kind or known a pat on the head. Others were indeed someone’s, but they were aged, sick, injured, dying, too aggressive to place, and the like, and PETA offered them a release from suffering, with no charge to their owners or custodians.

   Those figures also do not include the hundreds upon hundreds of dogs and cats whose suffering PETA works to alleviate by providing them with free food when their owners are poor, clean water buckets, sturdy dog houses, straw for winter, and more, or the hundreds of adoptable dogs and cats we will not take in but refer to walk-in animal shelters and adoption centers. Since 2001, PETA’s low- to no-cost spay-and-neuter mobile clinics, SNIP and ABC, have sterilized more than 50,000 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born, neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them. We also actively decrease the number of animals who end up in animal shelters only to be euthanized for lack of good homes by using star power to promote spaying and neutering in ads across the country.
   On a national level, PETA is focusing on the root of the problem through our Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign. The ABC campaign targets breeders, pet stores, and cat- and dog-breeding mills and in an active way through protests, PSAs, celebrity support, and investigations and puts the blame for the overpopulation crisis squarely where it belongs—with those who breed animals or allow their animals to breed. As long as animals are bred, homeless dogs and cats in animal shelters will die because there simply aren’t enough good homes for them all.

   As long as animals are still be purposely bred and people aren’t spaying and neutering their companions, open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA must do society’s dirty work. Euthanasia is not a solution to overpopulation but rather a tragic necessity given the present crisis. PETA is proud to be a “shelter of last resort,” where animals who have no place to go or who are unwanted or suffering are welcomed with love and open arms.

8. Nelson Lackey Says:
   

   March 31st, 2009 at 11:43 pm

   ms turner as for the front for “exploiting” to be exploited you have to be a person. “exploiting animals” is like screaming at a wall…while it does seem crazy and bizzare the wall could care less. The animal has no soul. It cannot be aware like myself and other reasonable people. It can hurt but the manor the animals are “prepped for dining” is a thousand times better than days of old…a wack with a wooden mallet. As for the killing out of greed…as long as they will keep killing them I pledge to help keep from there being an excess hanging around in freezers…long as I can cut down a tree…char the meat on my carcinigin cooking instrument (only in california the carcinigins in the grilling)….and devour as much as I feel is healthy…to much of ANYTHING is bad…like too much of your drivel is making me sick to my stomach. You would shove your agenda down my throat and force me to adopt your lifestyle. Sorry. but my lifestyle is to fight for your right to be a dolt. I will fight to the death for your right to destroy yourself with a non defendable lifestyle. But I will be damned if you will dictate to me how I will live mine. People like you think that animals have rights…I believe that also…They have the right to grow up on a beautiful ranch…eat grass and hay and feed that has been lovingly grown by the true environmentalist…Ranchers…Farmers, then after a prescribed time put into a feedlot and fed out on corn grown for feed…NOT alcohol to ruin my engine in the gas. After that run it through the dinner processing facility… age… grill and eat!!! I am a card carring member of P.E.T.A. People EATING Tasty Animals. I am also a God fearing Christian that believes as the Bible taught “Man has dominion over all the animals. NOWHERE does it state that animals have a soul and understand anything you believe. Please go back to your tofu and beansprouts…bet you wear leather shoes…stop trying to defend one of the single most disgusting and hypocritical organizations EVER. They have no agenda except to force me to adopt yours…like my gun it will happen after you pry my gun out of my cold dead fingers and tear the filet mignoin from my teeth!!!

9. Amanda Nolz Says:
   

   April 7th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

   This blog post definitely struck a nerve with many of you, and I enjoyed reading your many perspectives on these issues. We have such a wide array of readers on this blog, and I hope to educate those that come from outside of the agriculture sector. I appreciate everyones’ continued readership and support. I’m very excited that this blog is becoming such a great forum for everyone to get involved in. Thanks for sharing and please stop again soon!

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