Big dairy better be wary. Casey Affleck and Ryan Gosling have helped us expose dairy farms' cruel practice of dehorning calves to the public, and now PETA is appealing directly to dairy distributors' shareholders.

We bought stock in several dairy companies and businesses that have dairy farms in their supply chains so that we could propose shareholder resolutions asking the companies to phase out dehorning. Last week, we attended the annual meeting for WhiteWave, which owns Horizon Organic Milk, and told the other stockholders how the companies' dairy farm workers use searing-hot irons to burn off horn tissue or sharp tools to gouge out, or cut off calves' horns and often the surrounding tissue, too, while the animals bellow and writhe in pain. Not exactly the kind of thing that stockholders want to hear. We'll be piping up at the annual meeting for Domino's and proposing a shareholder resolution asking the company to require its suppliers to phase out dehorning.

PETA is offering both companies an easy solution: breed for polled (hornless) cattle. A single gene determines whether or not a cow will have horns, and this approach has proved effective in the beef industry.

We're also offering consumers an easy way to end dehorning: Purchase only cruelty-free (nondairy) milk. Let's horn in on cruelty, shall we?

Here's something that you might not know about PETA: We hold stock in companies whose policies we're trying to change so that we can attend annual meetings and propose shareholder resolutions to try to push companies to stop cruel practices. McDonald's had one such meeting today, so, of course, we were there with bells on.

PETA campaigner Tracy Patton stood up and asked McDonald's executives why they continue to allow their suppliers to use an archaic slaughter method that includes slicing chickens' throats while they're still conscious and scalding them to death in defeathering tanks. She explained to the group of shareholders that an improved slaughter method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK) would eliminate the worst abuses of chickens and is already used by McDonald's suppliers in Europe and by other companies in the U.S. 

The McDonald's execs hemmed and hawed and made excuses, but they and the shareholders got the message that PETA isn't going to let McDonald's cruel slaughter of hundreds of millions of chickens each year be swept under the rug.

Make sure that McDonald's gets the message from you, too. E-mail President Don Thompson, and demand that the chain switch to CAK.

PETA made sure that attendees at this week's annual meeting of KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands, in Louisville, Kentucky, would have something to chew on besides their cruelly obtained drumsticks and wings.

Taking Stock—of KFC Cruelty

As shareholders of Yum! Brands stock, PETA can attend the company's annual meeting and ask a question during the Q&A. So Yum! bigwigs and stockholders got an earful from PETA when it detailed how chickens used to supply KFC restaurants spend their entire short lives mired in their own waste in cramped filthy sheds on factory farms, only to be hung upside down, sustain broken wings and legs, and often end up scalded to death in slaughterhouse defeathering tanks. PETA's representative then asked when the company will make the simple, badly needed changes that were recommended by KFC's own animal welfare advisers (who understandably resigned in frustration).

How You Can Help KFC's Chickens

Join Pink, Sir Paul McCartney, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Black Eyed Peas, and many others in telling KFC to do right by chickens.

Here's a tip as we head toward Fur-Free Friday: If you really want folks to understand how gruesomely cruel the fur trade is, sometimes you just gotta confront them with a "bloody carcass" or two three.

Now, before you send us an angry e-mail, please note the quotation marks above—the carcasses (and the blood) were fake, but their intent was all too real: persuading shareholders attending the annual meeting of fashion retailer Coach to back PETA's resolution calling on the company to stop selling fur. Since we knew we might only have a few seconds to get our message across, we presented the grisly props as an instant reminder that many animals killed for their fur are electrocuted with rods that are forced into their orifices, have their legs or necks crushed in cruel traps, or simply have the skin cut and ripped from their bodies while they are still conscious.

Ready to get in the fight against fur? Great—let's get started!

Written by Jeff Mackey

Smithfield execs, who live high off the hog—actually, it's more like about 27 million hogs—have just decided that they cannot keep their promise to phase out gestation crates over the next 10 years.

Smithfield states, "Due to recent significant operating losses incurred by our Hog Production segment, we have delayed capital expenditures for the program such that we no longer expect to complete the phase-out within ten years of the original announcement."

These gestation crates that Smithfield is dragging its feet on phasing out are called "iron maidens" after medieval torture devices, and for good reason—sows kept in them cannot turn around, and their muscles atrophy. Over time, pigs kept in these horrid conditions develop sores from lying on filthy concrete and go insane from the confinement.

Consider that just three years' compensation for Smithfield's directors would more than cover the cost of a complete crate phase-out. Smithfield's claim that it can't spare pennies a pig to improve these animals' living conditions makes Ebenezer Scrooge look like a philanthropist and erodes any trust the company hopes to build with its consumers or with PETA.

Once again, animal welfare has taken a backseat to corporate profit. Smithfield can rest assured that we'll be at its annual meeting this August, making sure that pigs are heard.

Written by Karin Bennett

PETA is poised to take the mic on Wednesday to speak in behalf of chickens at McDonald's shareholder meeting in Oakbrook, Illinois. We're all set to grill CEO Jim Skinner and plan on asking him to change the way that his restaurants' suppliers slaughter birds by switching to controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), a less cruel slaughter method.

For years, we've tried to convince McDonald's to require its suppliers to use CAK, which would eliminate some of the worst abuses suffered by the millions of chickens who are turned into McNuggets every year. But despite our efforts, the company still refuses to implement CAK.

After the meeting at 12 noon, we'll lead a protest at a nearby McDonald's restaurant, during which two PETA members will soak in "bloody" water to draw attention to the fact that many chickens at slaughterhouses that supply McDonald's are boiled alive in scalding-hot water.

If you live in the Chicago area, feel free to join the festivities!

Written by Karin Bennett