Safeway Becomes Industry Leader on Animal Welfare Following Negotiations with PETA
January 2008
In 2002 PETA ended its Shameway campaign against grocery giant Safeway after the company agreed to some animal welfare reforms regarding the meat and eggs the company sells. Six years later, following extensive further negotiations, Safeway and PETA announced a new agreement that made Safeway the industry leader on animal welfare. Safeway has promised to do the following:
- Increase its purchases of flesh from chickens and turkeys killed by controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK) — the least cruel method of bird slaughter — and give purchasing preference to suppliers that use or switch to CAK.
- Increase the amount of pig flesh it purchases from suppliers that don’t use gestation crates — tiny metal enclosures so small that mother pigs can’t even turn around — by 5 percent of total pig flesh sales over each of the next three years. Safeway will also give purchasing preference to suppliers that don’t use gestation crates.
- Double the amount of cage-free eggs it’s sells to more than 6 percent of total eggs sales by 2010, and give purchasing preference to suppliers of cage-free eggs.
While “cage-free” and “crate-free” don’t mean “cruelty-free” (the best way to be cruelty-free is to go vegan) these changes will result in a dramatic reduction in suffering forhundreds of thousands of animals.
