| Safeway to drop pork suppliers that confine pregnant pigs
Safeway says it intends to stop buying pork from suppliers that confine pregnant sows in narrow metal crates. "Safeway's decision to move away from gestation crates is welcome and encouraging news," said Wayne Pacelle, the head of the HSUS. "By speaking out against these inherently cruel crates, Safeway is taking a positive step forward in improving animal welfare," said Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy For Animals. The Human Society praised the move. The group called on Walmart, Kroger and Costco to follow Safeway's lead. Mercy For Animals documented the suffering of confined pigs last year in an undercover investigation at a major Safeway supplier in Iowa, Select Farms. "It is Safeway's goal to have a gestation stall-free supply chain," Brian Dowling, Safeway's vice president of public affairs, said in a joint news release with the Humane Society of the United States. The company did not provide a target dates, noting that it "has substantially increased the quantity of pork it buys from producers that have made commitments to decreasing gestation stalls in their breeding facilities" during the past several years. The use of gestation crates has been banned in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine and Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and the European Union. |
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Safeway to drop pork suppliers that confine pregnant pigs
