  Safeway* claims that it “sees no evidence of widespread abuse.” That’s precisely our point: Safeway refuses to audit its suppliers, so it has no idea how abusive they are. Safeway says we should work through the government for the changes we want, but if McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s can address these issues of gratuitous abuse, so can Safeway. Don't let the corporation dodge the animal welfare issue. Act now.
*This campaign applies to North American Safeway stores only.
The U.K. Safeway chain is a separate company and is not a target.
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While Safeway representatives sit in their cushy offices, animals suffer in agony on factory farms. Safeway says it does not feel “entitled or qualified” to dictate how its suppliers treat animals. As a retailer, Safeway has every right to demand humane treatment on behalf of its customers. PETA has offered the help of internationally recognized experts in animal welfare, yet Safeway refuses to listen.
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PETA wants Safeway to at least meet the following seven guidelines—currently met by McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s.
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1 Conduct unannounced audits at all slaughterhouses.
Hire an expert to audit slaughterhouses and sever ties with those that fail audits.
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2 Require that suppliers euthanize animals who arrive at the slaughterhouse unable to walk, with broken limbs, or in severe pain. Animals often arrive at slaughterhouses frozen to the sides of trucks or unable to walk because of injuries or heat exhaustion.
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3 Stop buying eggs from suppliers that give hens less than 72 square inches of space per bird, and phase out purchases from suppliers that raise hens in battery cages. Safeway’s suppliers cram hens into cages with about as much space per bird as one-half of a sheet of standard paper, with tens of thousands of birds living in filthy urine-soaked sheds.
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4 Stop buying eggs from suppliers that starve and dehydrate hens in order to increase egg production (a process known as “forced molting”). Outlawed in Europe, this process, used to force hens into another egg-laying cycle, kills about one-third of the hens subjected to it.
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5 Institute humane guidelines for methods of catching chickens. Chicken catchers often break chickens’ bones as they gather them in sheds, remove them from cages and load them into crates to be transported to slaughter. Safeway should penalize workers who break chickens’ bones and reward workers who treat the birds more gently.
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6 Require slaughterhouses to improve electrical stunning of chickens by increasing stun-bath settings and encourage gas stunning as a less cruel alternative. Before their throats are cut, chickens’ heads are passed through an electrically charged water bath that immobilizes them but does not render them insensible to pain. The amperage is so low that chickens are often alive and bleeding to death after their throats are slit and enter the scalding tank (for feather removal) still conscious.
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7 Require suppliers to adopt air-quality guidelines for chickens by limiting ammonia exposure. Chickens exposed to toxic ammonia from urine and feces buildup in sheds suffer from chronic respiratory diseases, weakened immune systems, bronchitis and “ammonia burn,” a painful condition of the eye that can lead to blindness.
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Safeway boycott includes these subsidiaries:
Vons and Pavilions in Southern California
Dominick’s in Chicago
Randalls and Tom Thumb in Texas
Genuardi’s in the Philadelphia area
Carrs in Alaska
For contact information and for more information
on what you can do, visit Shameway.com.
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• Don’t shop at Safeway until it meets or exceeds PETA’s recommended guidelines. Tell the company’s president:
