Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 6/21/18


The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) said today it is launching a new TV ad campaign aimed at getting McDonald’s to improve its welfare standards for the broilers that are raised and processed for the restaurant chain’s various chicken menu items.
The 30-second spot, which depicts chickens “genetically selected to grow too large and too fast” experiencing “abuse and suffering” on “factory farms,” will reportedly air in the Chicago market, McDonald’s home base.

HSUS officials said the goal of the campaign is to compel McDonald’s to join its peers, including Burger King, Subway and Jack in the Box, in “adopting meaningful reforms for these animals.” The activist group said McDonald’s has fallen short in only saying that it will “study” the issue of how broilers are grown.

In October, McDonald’s announced a new chicken welfare policy, although it did not commit to transitioning to slower-growing breeds, which groups the likes of HSUS say have a more humane growth rate.

McDonald’s did, however, commit to many other improvements. Among them are the use of “perches” and other mechanisms to promote natural behavior in the barn; a transition to controlled atmospheric stunning (CAS); and third-party audits.

In a statement, Marion Gross, senior vice president and chief supply chain officer for McDonald’s USA, said, "We are building on this work in collaboration with the newly formed Global Chicken Sustainability Advisory Council, a multi-stakeholder group of experts, as we work toward these global commitments. We believe this outcome-based approach provides the most comprehensive way forward to measurably improve chicken welfare."

The Global Chicken Sustainability Advisory Council does not include HSUS.

HSUS’s new campaign sets an adversarial tone in a relationship that has a conciliatory history. In 2012, HSUS and McDonald’s partnered to announce plans to end the use of gestation stalls for sows, and in 2015 the two joined to announce the restaurant chain’s conversion to 100 percent cage-free eggs.

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