Written by PETA
Ronald's busy peddling dead, dismembered chickens to children, so McDonald's hired Rick Wion to promote its cruel products on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. So let's welcome Rick to our big, happy online family and politely let him know why we're not eating at McDonald's.
PETA has more than 60,000 followers on Twitter, so this is a great opportunity for us all to band together and encourage McDonald's new director of social media to do what he can to help chickens from the inside by signing our Twitition.
If you haven't already, "like" PETA on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay in the know about ways you can help chickens and other animals!
Written by Heather Moore
Just in time for Friday afternoon's behind-the-boss's-back video-game break, the creator of our popular New Super Chick Sisters is taking us on a walk through the game, showing us where the secret tofu blocks are stashed and demonstrating the proper technique for butt-stomping doomburgers on the way to save Princess Pamela Anderson from the clutches of evil Ronald McDonald. (Baffled? We promise not to tell anyone that you're a bigger fan of the Bee Gees than of video games if you promise to show this to a daughter, son, niece, nephew, or grandchild. It'll score you some points; you'll see.)
She had me at "hairball-coughing sea kitten suit"!
If you haven't played this addictive game, check it out. After you rescue Princess Pam, why not take down the chicken-abusing clown the good old-fashioned way—by dropping McDonald's a line?
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Honorary PETA director Bea Arthur had no intention of letting a little thing like, say, death stop her from speaking out against cruelty to animals. The Golden Girl is taking on the Golden Arches' chicken abuse in a full-page PETA ad in Thursday's Chicago Tribune—paid for by Bea herself through a gift in her will.
PETA members dressed in black will also hold a spirited protest outside a downtown Chicago McDonald's to mark the ad's debut and the one-year anniversary of beautiful Bea's passing.
Will Bea's plea from beyond the grave inspire McDonald's to lessen the hellish suffering of the chickens who are killed for its restaurants? Please join Bea and PETA by taking action and urging McDonald's to demand that its suppliers switch to a less cruel slaughter method called controlled-atmosphere killing. If Bea's eternal activism has inspired you, please also consider joining PETA's Augustus Club (which Bea helped launch) to ensure that your efforts to help animals live on long after you've gone!
This clever PETA supporter gave the term "armchair activism" a whole new meaning by sitting down in order to stand up for chickens who have their throats cut open and are scalded alive by McDonald's suppliers.
Nothing says "all-American" quite like the mass slaughter of animals, right? Um, yeah—didn't think so. These chic-with-a-beak supporters and several other friends to chickens hit the streets outside the McCruelty-sponsored All American Basketball Games during rush hour in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday. They were urging passersby to boycott McDonald's fowl fouls and petition the company to switch to suppliers that use "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK), a humane play that would eliminate many of the worst abuses suffered by chickens at slaughter.
People outraged by McCruelty are signing up to host McCruelty demos in their cities, while others are pushing for Ronald's retirement. Which will you choose?
Written by Logan Scherer
The recent theft of bleachers from Chicago's Orr High School has left students without seating and robbed them of their school spirit. "It felt good to be out there beating on the drum, rooting the team on. All the people from the community coming to support us and everything. And now you wake up and all the seats are gone," said one student.
Well, PETA has just the thing to raise morale at Orr High and the community's awareness of the suffering that's endured by chickens who are killed for McNuggets. We're offering the school $5,000 and a veggie-burger lunch in exchange for placing this McCruelty ad on its new bleachers:
If there's one thing rivaling teams and fans can agree on, it's that scalding chickens in defeathering tanks is a real fumble. By spreading the message that McDonald's needs to push its suppliers to adopt controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)—a less cruel method of slaughtering chickens—Orr High could rally for chickens every day of the week.
Ryan Gosling is the heartthrob with a heart of gold—and now he's got a message for the Golden Arches: Stop scalding chickens to death in defeathering tanks. The Oscar-nominated actor just fired off a letter on PETA's behalf to McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner asking him to adopt a less cruel slaughter method. Controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), which McDonald's European suppliers already use, would eliminate the worst abuses currently faced by chickens who are killed for McNuggets.
Ryan himself said it best in Half Nelson: "The only constant is change." By changing to a more humane slaughter method, McDonald's would evolve and show the world some compassion for animals. If you could say anything to McD's, what would you tell them?
Some say Olympic snowboarder Greg Bretz "won" an informal McNugget-eating contest by downing 60 blobs of fried chicken bits. But judging by the dazed expression on his face in the second photo, I'm thinking that even he agrees: major biff!
Regardless, we've asked Greg to lay off the McNuggets until McDonald's adopts a less cruel slaughter method. McCruelty in the U.S. and Canada refuses to improve slaughter methods for birds, instead allowing suppliers to break chickens' bones and scald many of them to death—never mind that controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), approved for use in the U.S., is already used by McDonald's suppliers in Europe.
Perhaps he'll decide to follow Olympic medalist and snowboarder extraordinaire Hannah Teter's lead, who, when asked about life at the Olympics, scored gold in the hearts of caring people around the world when she quipped, "They have McDonald's at the athlete village, so I'll hit that up every morning. … Not!"
Written by Karin Bennett
Sometimes all you need is a sign—and with our new McCruelty Sign Generator, you can create one for McDonald's McCruelty. Design your own slogan and expose the painful slaughter behind the "billions and billions" of chickens served. Check out a few signs that the bloggers have already generated:
We can't wait to see your signs!
This morning, hundreds of McDonald's owners and operators who flew to Tucson for a corporate seminar heard an unlikely speaker: PETA V.P. Dan Mathews. Our own "Rabble Rouser" took over the podium at the Westin La Paloma Resort during the opening presentation to urge franchisees to convince McDonald's to switch to more humane slaughter methods.
Dan's, uh, "keynote address" centered on a topic that the company would rather ignore. McDonald's suppliers use an outdated killing method that causes birds to have their throats cut while they are still conscious, many of them to suffer broken wings and legs, and many to be scalded to death in defeathering tanks. PETA—along with members of McDonald's own animal welfare advisory panel—has urged the company to upgrade its slaughter method to controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), which would eliminate the worst forms of cruelty, but so far McDonald's refuses to listen.
If you could speak at a McDonald's convention, what would you say?
Written by Shawna Flavell
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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