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HSUS CEO drops bid for seat on Tyson board
Story Date: 12/27/2012
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Source: MEATINGPLACE, 12/26/12
Humane Society of the United States Chief Executive Wayne Pacelle has withdrawn his nomination for a seat on Tyson Foods’ board of directors.
“He is no longer a Tyson board candidate,” Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman said in a statement emailed to Meatingplace.
Pacelle, confirming he is no longer seeking a seat on Tyson’s board, told Meatingplace the company’s dual-class stock structure was a barrier to his election, and it became clear that the company would not support his nomination.
“I had hoped that Tyson Foods would see the value, given the prominence of animal rights issues in our society, of having someone like me on its board,” Pacelle said by phone.
Pacelle in October said his reason for pursuing a seat on Tyson’s board was to convince the company to set a timetable for phasing out the use of gestation stalls in its pork processing operations. At the time, activist investor Carl Icahn had voiced his support for the HSUS effort.
Sparkman said Tyson buys hogs from thousands of independent hog farmers, and some use gestation stalls.
“While we support the right of farmers to choose the best method for raising their hogs, we also support our customers’ right to choose the best product specifications for their consumers and businesses. The availability of pork from hogs born to group-penned sows is currently very limited; however, we will monitor this supply and, if there’s a sufficient increase over time, we’ll explore the possibility of using it to meet the needs of those customers who want pork from hogs raised this way,” Sparkman said in the statement.
Pacelle noted that some 50 food companies, including Costco and McDonald’s, this year pledged to phase out the purchase of pork from producers using gestation crates.
Tyson elected seven people to its board at its last annual shareholder meeting in February and left the seat of the late Don Tyson unfilled.
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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