Ten PETA members including about three Pepperdine students demonstrated outside McDonald’s on Pacific Coast Highway on Saturday calling attention to the slaughtering practices utilized by the fast food chain’s suppliers.
PETA’s campaign called “McCruelty says the suppliers’ methods inflict unnecessary suffering on the animals, including broken bones, live scalding and worker abuse.
According to the group’s flyers: PETA is asking McDonald’s to require the use of a less cruel chicken-slaughter method that will be implemented at some slaughterhouses in the U.S. in 2011 and is already being used by some McDonald’s suppliers in Europe.”
Pepperdine senior Jenna Saulnier an intern for PETA who organized the event said the campaign has seen successes. Wendy’s and Carl’s Jr. suppliers in the United States as well as Kentucky Fried Chicken in Canada have started looking to suppliers who practice controlled atmosphere killing Saulnier said.
She said that the more humane slaughtering practices would cost “a few cents more per meal.” Other PETA literature argues that there could actually be some economic benefit to the new practices such as lowering of labor costs.
McDonald’s having assessed the controlled atmosphere stunning methods remains unimpressed yet continues to be “committed to working with suppliers and outside experts to continuously improve our standards and practices.”