Chicago, IL —Yesterday, Oak Brook-based McDonald's announced it was cutting ties with an egg factory farm following the release of an undercover investigation by the animal protection organization Mercy For Animals, which exposed shocking animal cruelty. At a news conference this morning, the organization will call upon the fast-food giant to go a step further by implementing a strict new animal welfare rule prohibiting the sale of eggs from hens confined in crowded cages in its U.S. restaurants — something the company has already done in Europe.
The undercover footage recorded at Sparboe Egg Farms in Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado reveals:
- Hens crammed into filthy wire cages with less space for each bird than a standard-sized sheet of paper to live her entire miserable life, unable to fully stretch her wings, or engage in most other natural behaviors
- Workers burning off the beaks of young chicks without any painkillers
- Rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption
- A worker tormenting a bird by swinging her around in the air while her legs were caught in a grabbing device
- Chicks trapped and mangled in cage wire — others suffering from open wounds and torn beaks
- Live chicks thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated
Confining hens in battery cages is so cruel that the entire European Union and the states of California and Michigan have banned their use. Additionally, leading food retailers, such as Whole Foods, Hellmann's, and Wolfgang Puck, and hundreds of colleges refuse to use or sell eggs from hens subjected to the inherent abuses of battery cages.
Release of the undercover video comes just days after a stern warning letter was issued to Sparboe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identifying a series of health and safety violations documented during the FDA's inspections of five Sparboe facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado in April through June of 2011. During those inspections, the FDA documented "unacceptable rodent activity," "unacceptable pest activity," and inadequate protections against salmonella cross-contamination. As a result of Sparboe's numerous health and safety violations, the FDA has deemed its shell eggs "adulterated," in that they have been "prepared, packed or held under unsanitary conditions whereby they may have been contaminated by filth."
"If McDonald's truly cares about animal welfare, they should immediately implement a policy to end the use of eggs from hens kept crammed inside tiny wire cages where they cannot freely spread their wings, walk, or engage in other natural behaviors," said MFA's Executive Director Nathan Runkle. "It's time that McDonald's become proactive, not merely reactive, in addressing animal welfare issues."
