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| The McCruelty Unhappy Meal. Photo: PETA |
The animal rights organization lifted its moratorium on the McCruelty Campaign this year and since June has distributed Chicken McCruelty Unhappy Meals to McDonald's customers outside about a dozen restaurants around the country.
"McDonald's markets its food to children by packaging it in brightly colored boxes with toys," Lindsay Rajt, a spokeswoman for PETA, tells Slashfood. "But most kids really love animals, and if they knew that McDonald's suppliers were breaking the wings and legs of gentle animals like chickens, I think that you'd have to drag kids into McDonald's kicking and screaming."
The campaign, though, has parents "hatin' it."
A PETA protest of a McDonald's in Albany, N.Y., upset parents on Thursday, WXXA-TV reports.
"I don't want my son to be around something like this," parent Stephanie Gipson told the station. "This is not fair for a child."
But Rajt says children have seen worse things than PETA's Unhappy Meal, which comes "stained with blood" and containing a bloody rubber chicken, a cutout of a knife-wielding Ronald McDonald, photos of mutilated animals and a Chicken McCruelty T-shirt.
"Kids deserve to be told the truth and we really do need to give them credit," she says. "The bottom line is that they've really seen much worse in movies and videogames, and we all know that kids empathize with animals."
McDonald's told Slashfood that it expects the humane treatment of animals from its suppliers.
Our goal has always been to lead the industry by bringing about improvements in animal welfare including rigorous, ongoing audits of our suppliers' facilities.
"McDonald's works with leading independent animal welfare experts and makes decisions based upon science to promote continuous improvement in animal welfare as part of our broader sustainable supply chain initiatives," Bob Langert, McDonald's vice president of corporate social responsibility, says in a statement to Slashfood.
"McDonald's continues to support our chicken suppliers' use of both controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) and electrical stunning. There is no conclusive scientific consensus that one practice is better than the other, however, we recognize that in either method, good management practices are critical," he says. "It is also important to note that in the U.S., there are no large-scale chicken producers that currently use the CAS method, therefore demands to purchase chickens from this method to meet McDonald's supply needs are not viable."
PETA says it worked with McDonald's behind the scenes from 2000 to February 2009 before it re-instituted its McCruelty campaign. A PETA protest was expected Friday afternoon at a restaurant in South Burlington, Vt.
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8-07-2009 @3:07PM countflock said... This is disgusting and sick. PETA is entitled to believe whatever they want to, but this steps way over the line. I like to eat meat and they will never change my mind. They don't like to eat meat and I will never change their mind. Why can't they leave it at that?
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8-07-2009 @3:08PM Jose R. Dasilva said... PETA is nothing more than a domestic terrorist group whose members think nothing of condoning the destruction of laboratorys and research centers. They are of the same ilk as the enviromentalist whackos who think it's allright to destroy new building developments and automobile dealerships that sell SUVs. The goverment should persue these criminals as fiercely as other terrorist groups.
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8-07-2009 @3:10PM chicken KILLER said... Hey PETA!
I just built a coop and bought a bunch of chickens.
I can't wait until I teach my kids about exploiting them for their eggs.
BUT! What I really want to do, is teach my 9yr old and 7yr old how to ring their necks and butcher them for dinner! YUM! YUM!
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8-07-2009 @3:12PM Ronald McBeerbelly said... I think adults more then children should be targeted. Children don't understand and this just scares them. As far as the nut who said that animals are here to serve us by being available as food, the same applies to animals that attack and eat humans. We are here to serve them our bodies.
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8-07-2009 @3:12PM rbtltd said... Its our way or the highway. What the hell are these people thinking. It like religion, if you don't believe in our GOD we will KILL YOU!!! And then they do.
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8-07-2009 @3:15PM TmBick5 said... Lisa said..This weekend in New Jersey there was lice incidence in the Showboat casino. There are pictures and evidence but they deny these claims as they have done in the past with others and have left people's health in jeopardy..I'm sorry to tell you this Lisa. However, the loudest voice in the room at this time is only worried about chickens. Why wasn't your story posted on aol's top news instead of suffering chickens?
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8-07-2009 @3:14PM Ryan said... Heeeeres Ronald!
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8-07-2009 @3:14PM Obama Lies said... OH ITS OK FOR THESE TERRORISTS TO WALK OUR STREETS ..DON'T EAT MEAT...WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GONNA DO WITH ALL THOSE G.D. GLOBAL WARMING GAS PRODUCING ANIMALS IF WE DON'T EAT MEAT YOU G.D. STUPID A$$HOLE EXTREMISTS...COME TO MY TOWN AND TRY THAT CRAP AND I SWEAR YOU WOULD SEE WHAT TRUE MEAT EATERS DO WITH IDIOTS LIKE YOU!!! PETA...WHAT A BUNCH OF DOMESTIC TERRORISTS...ITS TIME OUR GOVERNMENT STARTED PROTECTING SOCIETY FROM THESE LEFTIST MARXIST AMERICA HATING KOOKS! DITTO J SMITH- LOVE IT!!!! PETA PEOPLE ARE TERRORIST!
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8-07-2009 @4:20PM laurab1186 said... I'm all for animals not being cruelly or inhumanely treated, but the tactics PETA is toting nowadays is almost as bad as what they're coming against. The things they were handing out are disturbing. I think they would have a better case by intelligently trying to get the chickens fairer treatment (AKA humane, adequate living conditions, no one swinging them around and causing unnecessary suffering). I'm all for being a vegetarian for health benefits, but when it becomes a matter of animals becoming like a god to people, that's a little off. I love animals but I'm not against eating them. I believe men were put on this earth to look after the animals, treat them well, and use them for food if we like.
PETA's campaigns are well meant, but extremely unbalanced.
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8-07-2009 @3:15PM mrkoe said... While I appreciate PETA and their efforts to end animal cruelty, I do not think that handing out the "McCruelty" lunch packs to children is responsible protest. If they want to hand these out, they need to hand them to the parents, not the children. I am a person who eats chicken and beef and I believe that is part of the cycle of life, however I believe that the animals that were put on this earth to nourish us should be treated well and with respect.
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8-07-2009 @3:22PM Cindy said... PETA
People
Eating
Tasty
Animals
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8-07-2009 @3:16PM Stacey said... PETA people are so wacked out and over the top on their stunts "to save the world" that they push people away from their message. I would go the opposite way of PETA just because they are so wacked. Off to McDonald's for a yummy happy Meal now... thanks for the idea PETA!
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8-07-2009 @3:27PM maryjune49 said... THESE PEOPLE ARE A BUNCH OF PAMPERED FOLKS WHO HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO. THE MOVIE STARS WHO TAKE PART IN THIS DOMESTIC TERRORIST GROUP OUGHT TO BE BOYCOTTED. WHAT SCHOOL WOULD ALLOW THESE IDIOTS TO ADDRESS THEIR STUDENTS? HEY, PAM ANDERSON....PASS ME A DRUMSTICK PLEASE!
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8-07-2009 @3:19PM MC said... PETA SUCKS!!! I used to live near PETA headquarters in VA and they were such a joke. I took my five year old cousin to the circus and they were protesting by handing out pictures of bloody elephants. My cousin freaked and started screaming and we couldn't get him to sleep well for a week. PETA is just a bunch of bored idiots with nothing better to do. If they care about animals so much why did they kill a bunch of crabs and other water life by building their waterfront headquarters in Norfolk
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8-07-2009 @3:19PM dinosaur said... I saw a video of PETA supporter Pam Anderson eating Tommie Lee's meat while it was still alive. ????
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8-07-2009 @3:27PM Erika said... Wow, I never felt comfortable with PETA's actions in the past and I really still don't. Thats just crazy 2 do that 2 young children, what is going through their minds? I am not a vegetarian but I respect those who are, PETA though I dont have much for cause of how extreme they can be. Everyone has a choice if they want 2 eat meat or not.
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8-07-2009 @3:20PM Stacey said... PETA people are so wacked out and over the top on their stunts "to
save the world" that they push people away from their message. I
would go the opposite way of PETA just because they are so wacked. Who the heck are you to "educate" my child. Go home and raise your own kids to be socially acceptable humans who can function in this world and save it in a more respectable manner.
Off to McDonald's for a yummy happy Meal now... thanks for the idea
PETA!
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8-07-2009 @3:25PM barbarella said... Well, sorry kids! But if McDonald's buys meat from companies that allow any animals to suffer a lot before they're killed for my dinner, it should be exposed in whatever way that's effective. I'm not a vegetarian and I'll even eat meat products at mostly-gross McDonald's now and then. But, being an animal (human mammal) myself, I just hate to see my fellow animals, especially mammals, suffer before I eat them. Get the knife from Ronald and kill them quick with a bullet or something, for God's sake! Or at least for the animal's sake.
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8-07-2009 @3:25PM Tackberry said... I don't like to think of animals suffering before or during slaughter, but I'm not going to stop eating meat. You have to take for granted that the meat packers use humane methods. There ARE government rules for that. PETA is full of flakes (some of them violent)who need to worry about their own species, WE are the ones in trouble. Kids need protein to grow, and meat is a good source. Nature designed us to be omnivorous. PETA, keep your dumb ideas away from McDonalds.
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8-07-2009 @3:25PM Dean said... Gentle animals like chickens?Obviously this person has never raised chickens.I have and they can be mean little buggers and eating them mkaes the taste better.Hmm,hmm good!
I'm all for PETA,people eating tasty animals,oh yeah!Fish,pork,beef,etc.
Ok,that was fun but peta should be on the terrorists list.If someone came up and threw pigs blood (no one ever asks where they got it) on me they better be ready to get thier butt kicked.You also have them interfering with lawful commerce which is against the law.They throw red ink on people wearing furs.But I guess they have plenty of money to pay for thier damage.I would sue for a few trillion dollars as that seems to be the going price for things now.
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