PETA Calls On Walmart to Require Less Cruel Method of Chicken Slaughter

Group's Shareholder Resolution to Be Voted on After Retail Giant Fails in Attempt to Have It Excluded 

For Immediate Release:
June 3, 2010

Contact:
Stephanie Corrigan 757-622-7382

Fayetteville, Ark. -- PETA, which is a Walmart shareholder, will present a resolution to executives at the company's annual meeting in Fayetteville on Friday. PETA wants Walmart to require all its chicken and turkey suppliers to switch to a less cruel method of slaughter called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK) within five years. Many grocery chains and restaurants--including A&P, Harris Teeter, KFCs in Canada, Kroger, Quiznos, Ruby Tuesday, and Winn-Dixie--already buy birds who are killed by CAK. Walmart operates more than 7,800 stores, including 2,970 combination discount/grocery stores and 600 Sam's Club warehouse stores:

When:   Friday, June 4, 7 a.m.

Where:  Bud Walton Arena, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

"As an industry leader, Walmart should be ashamed that it is lagging behind its competitors in improving conditions for the chickens and turkeys who end up on its shelves," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "There's a way to prevent birds from being scalded to death or having their throats cut while they are still conscious, and consumers are in favor of it, so it makes sense for Walmart to take action to stop this abuse."

Walmart had sought to exclude the resolution from a vote by claiming that its purchases of chickens and turkeys weren't "significantly related" to the company's total assets and that such purchases fall under ordinary business operations. But the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that the resolution "focuses on the significant policy issue of the humane treatment of animals, and it does not seek to micromanage the company to such a degree that we believe exclusion of the proposal would be appropriate."

Currently, birds who are killed for Walmart are dumped onto conveyor belts and slammed upside down by their legs into metal shackles--a procedure that often results in broken wings and broken legs. Birds are still conscious when their throats are cut, and many are then scalded to death in defeathering tanks. All these abuses can be eliminated by using CAK, a method in which the oxygen that chickens and turkeys breathe is slowly replaced with a nonpoisonous gas that puts the birds "to sleep" while they are still in their transport crates.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.