Never in the history of the animal rights movement has as much progress been made for factory-farmed animals as in 2007.

Following pressure from PETA, Smithfield Foods—the world’s largest pig-meat producer—agreed to reduce (and eventually phase out) its use of “gestation crates” for pregnant pigs, a practice that causes intense stress and pain by virtually immobilizing pigs for two to three years in cramped, metal cages. In addition, Murphy-Brown, the company that raises pigs for Smithfield, implemented a new program for preventing and responding to accidents involving pig-transport trucks. Improvements include placing speed-restriction devices on trucks, requiring all drivers to undergo safety training, and setting up “Animal Rescue Units” equipped with tools and supplies necessary for responding to accident scenes.

After negotiations with PETA, Burger King, Wendy’s, and CKE Restaurants, Inc. (owner of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.), agreed to purchase more of their pig meat from crate-free suppliers and to influence chicken suppliers to end leg-breaking, live scalding, and other slaughterhouse cruelty by switching to a less cruel killing method.

Burger King and CKE also agreed to decrease the percentage of eggs they purchase that have been laid by hens kept in “battery cages”—cages that are so tiny, the birds barely have enough room to move—by increasing their purchases of “cage-free” eggs.

PETA’s vegetarian campaign—featuring ads starring comedian Kevin Nealon, actors Casey Affleck and Peter Dinklage, and many others—brought millions of visitors to GoVeg.com to learn how to adopt a cruelty-free diet. The day after its release, our pro-vegetarian public service announcement featuring Alicia Silverstone became the fifth-most-watched video on YouTube.com.

Other successes include persuading Starbucks (which is serving more and more prepared food) to urge its turkey suppliers to adopt killing methods that cause less suffering, convincing grocery chain Raley’s to stop selling live lobsters, and dissuading grocery chain Giant Eagle from selling foie gras—the diseased livers of force-fed ducks and geese.

PETA’s undercover investigators were also out in full force, exposing and documenting the following:

• Hens whose weakened bones broke after the birds were forced to live in tiny, crowded cages at the Mepkin Abbey egg farm in South Carolina (spurring the abbey to improve the hens’ living conditions)
• Conscious cows whose throats were ripped with a meat hook at the Local Pride slaughterhouse in Nebraska (prompting a U.S. government investigation and sweeping reforms at the plant)
• Live chickens who were impaled by mangled transport cages and crushed by dumping machines at a KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in Missouri
• Turkeys who were dismembered and scalded to death at the world’s largest turkey slaughterhouse, in North Carolina

By posting this and other video footage on PETA’s Web sites and on video-sharing sites such as YouTube, we were able to reach tens of millions of viewers who would otherwise never know about the cruelty of factory farming.

As a result of consultations with PETA, top investment and analyst firms recommended that their investors vote in favor of PETA’s shareholder resolutions for food-industry companies to make animal welfare reforms—sending the powerful message that animal abuse has negative financial consequences.

PETA’s pressure on KFC to eliminate its suppliers’ most egregious abuses of chickens continued to escalate, with more than 900 demonstrations held at KFC restaurants in 2007.

“Fast-food restaurants have long found themselves in the crosshairs of animal rights groups like PETA. As a result, they’ve slowly but steadily pushed factory-farming reform in a bid to stay ahead of consumer sentiment.”

—Maclean’s (2.8 million readers), April 16, 2007