Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, sent a letter to Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's General Stores urging the company to reconsider its insistence on exclusively selling eggs from birds confined in tiny cages. Last week, The HSUS revealed severe animal welfare and food safety concerns documented through undercover investigations at Rose Acre Farmsâ€"Casey's sole egg supplier.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, sent a letter to Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's General Stores urging the company to reconsider its insistence on exclusively selling eggs from birds confined in tiny cages. Last week, The HSUS revealed severe animal welfare and food safety concerns documented through undercover investigations at Rose Acre Farms—Casey's sole egg supplier.
Casey's—which has nearly 1,500 stores throughout the Midwest and annual sales of $4.6 billion—sells about one million eggs per year, all of which come from Rose Acre Farms' battery cage confinement facilities.
HSUS staff has been in communication with Casey's executives since July 2009 regarding the company's exclusive use of eggs from caged hens.
A copy of Pacelle's letter is available upon request.
Facts:
In a landslide 2008 vote, nearly 64 percent of California voters passed Prop 2, outlawing cage confinement of egg-laying hens statewide ( with a phase-out ). Michigan passed a similar law in 2009. U.S. factory farms confine about 280 million hens in barren cages so small, they can't even spread their wings. Extensive scientific research confirms this causes suffering. Cage-free hens generally have two to three times more space per bird than caged hens. Cage-free hens may not be able to go outside and may have parts of their beaks cut off, but they can walk, spread their wings, and lay their eggs in nests—all behaviors permanently denied to hens crammed into battery cages. -30-
Related Content
Published by:
N/A
Release Date
This story was released on 2010-04-16. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.