McDonald's Animal Cruelty: McDonald's Drops Supplier Sparboe Egg Farms After Undercover Investigation

Mercy For Animals, known for exposing instances of animal cruelty across the country, has just released its newest undercover footage. The video, which was shot at McDonald's egg supplier Sparboe Egg Farms, the fifth largest egg supplier in the country, shows various acts of animal cruelty including:

• Hens crammed into wire cages
• Workers burning off the beaks of young chicks and throwing them into cages
• Workers grabbing hens by their throats and ramming them into battery cages
• Rotted hens and decomposed birds left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption
• A worker tormenting a bird by swinging her around in the air while her legs were caught in a grabbing device
• A worker shoving a bird into the pocket of another employee
• Chicks trapped and mangled in cage wire, others with open wounds and torn beaks
• Live chicks thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated

Sparboe had produced all eggs used by McDonald's restaurants west of the Mississippi River. Mercy For Animals started a petition to urge McDonald's to uncage egg-laying hens, and McDonald's was fast to respond. McDonald's released a statement, sent via email to The Huffington Post, from Bon Langert, Vice President, Sustainability, that said:

McDonald's expects all of our suppliers to meet our stringent requirements for delivering high quality food prepared in a humane and responsible manner. Based upon recent information, we have informed our direct supplier, Cargill, that we are no longer accepting eggs from its supplier, Sparboe. This decision is based on McDonald's and Cargill's concern regarding the management of Sparboe's facilities.

This is not a food safety issue for our menu items. We can assure our customers that eggs in our entire supply chain meet McDonald's high standards for quality and safety.

Our primary commitment is to our customers, and we will continue serving safe, high-quality food without disruption.

Regarding the undercover videos, the behavior on tape is disturbing and completely unacceptable. McDonald's wants to assure our customers that we demand humane treatment of animals by our suppliers. We take this responsibility -- along with our customers' trust -- very seriously. It's important to note that the most alarming actions on video did not occur at Sparboe's Vincent, Iowa, facility that supplies McDonald's. Nonetheless, our extremely high standards for our suppliers prohibit this conduct.

McDonald's cares about how our food is sourced and we have a long history of action and commitment to improve the welfare of animals in our supply chain. We are a founding member of the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply (CSES) and are participating in an unprecedented three-year study that compares traditional, cage-free, and enriched laying hen housing systems on a commercial scale. For our customers, that means we’re working with scientists and suppliers to determine the most optimal hen housing method considering impacts on hen health & welfare, food safety, environment, and other important factors.

McDonald's is proud to be recognized as a leader in the restaurant industry for serving safe, quality food. Customers can feel good about eating at McDonald's.

Mercy For Animals executive director Nathan Runkle told ABC, which is airing the investigation tonight, that McDonald's action was "too little, too late." McDonald's is the largest egg buyer in the U.S. In the past year, the Humane Society and the United Egg Producers teamed up to reform the egg industry.

What do you think of McDonald's decision? Let us know in the comments and watch out the undercover footage below:

Comments

[Ocean Protector]

05:45 PM on 08/31/2012

There is absolutely NO NEED for animal [all] protein; watch [if you haven't already] the documentary "Forks Over Knives" and see it for yourself...a plant food diet is the ONLY way to go, for both ethical and health reasons.

[Seymoreclearly]

05:22 PM on 11/22/2011

Perhaps mega-food suppliers are a necessity in this day and age of industrial food production. I don't believe it's necessary to be cruel under ANY circumstance, especially to small living things. Shame, shame, shame on these workers.

[cheetah slims]

08:16 AM on 11/21/2011

Yet another good reason for us ALL to cut back on our meat, dairy and egg consumption.

I buy my eggs from local growers. I can feed and touch my chickens before I eat their eggs and watch them run around the yard nibbling on grubs. Its a very good feeling to know you've made a tangible difference in at least one small life. And that feeling far outweighs the convenience of going to a grocery store.

[moofatenator]

12:56 PM on 11/21/2011

Agree 100%, it's simply to the point where you don't know what you're getting anymore.

I recently discovered almond milk, better in every way. I can't believe I bothered with milk my entire life...

[mad lib]

06:25 AM on 11/21/2011

"This is not a food safety issue for our menu items. We can assure our customers that eggs in our entire supply chain meet McDonald's high standards for quality and safety. "

Sure they can. Just like they can assure us there has been no animal cruelty!

[aparker]

05:55 AM on 11/21/2011

I'm really glad that McDonald's stopped using them as a supplier but what I want to know is: will this company be shut down or prosecuted? I certainly hope so!

[plantbasedpunk]

02:15 PM on 11/22/2011

If we all stopped buying their eggs, they would be forced to either change their methods, or shut down.

[ninetailedfox]

05:47 AM on 11/21/2011

It didnt happen here.......McDonalds employees should try for politics.........

[OSHMUNNIES]

12:09 PM on 11/21/2011

Actually, dozens of politicians already work for McDonalds...go to campaignmoney.com and find McDonald's Corporation Political Action Committee

[John Edward Phillips Jr]

02:33 AM on 11/21/2011

Its sick individuals like this that have turned my mother in law into a vegan. After watching videos of these people beating these poor animals she can't eat animal products anymore regardless of where they come from for fear that she is funding companies that hire people to do this to animals. While I understand her feelings I choose not to go vegan because I simply love eating meat too much, however I do wish regulations would be in place to allow for animals to be treated properly even when they are used to make food. There is such a thing as humane killing, where you kill the animal before you start cutting it up or pulling feathers or anything like that.

[mad lib]

06:27 AM on 11/21/2011

Check out the movie, "Food Inc." Cruelty to Animals is just a part of it.

[plantbasedpunk]

02:19 PM on 11/22/2011

I used to be a total meat-head. My nickname around the dinner was "carnivore" because I ate so much of it. The last time I ate animal flesh it was steak, chicken wings and a few veggies with ranch dressing. The following day, I went vegan. I thought it was going to be tough, but it turns out my worries were completely unfounded. There are so many things I enjoy now that don't come from animals. Last night I enjoyed a bowl of sweet potato & black bean chili. For lunch today I had a falafel pita with greens and pickles, drenched in tahini sauce. At when I do get a hankering for something "meaty" I'll grill up a Tofurky bratwurst. I've said this a million times before, but it's true: the only people who think going vegan (or giving up meat, even) is difficult are the ones who have never tried it.

[gwinegarden]

12:15 AM on 11/21/2011

Groups, such as WSPA, have been lobbying McDonald's to start using cage-free eggs. When companies, such as McD's, go that way, things may change for the better.

[gwinegarden]

12:06 AM on 11/21/2011

All eggs should be from free-range or, at a minimum, free-run chickens.

[Diabloggical]

11:18 PM on 11/20/2011

These are the same people who, if working in a nursing home, would be beating the elderly. If you eat meat, something has to die to feed you, but it is not required that it be tortured first. Of course, waterboarding doesn't count.

[samiam1562]

09:23 PM on 11/20/2011

Urban morons who dont have a clue what it takes to feed 300 mil people in the US alone. The individuals that were guilty of specific acts of cruelty should be dealt with but the facts are this is what it takes to feed our ever expanding population! I hunt and grow my own food and know what it takes

[Seymoreclearly]

05:17 PM on 11/22/2011

You have a point, but cruelty goes above & beyond what's necessary to raise food. What goes around, comes around. The misery we create for the animals we raise for food will be ingested. Look at the world & tell me there's no correlation.

[Barbara Lam]

07:23 PM on 11/20/2011

That's it...
I am getting chickens and producing my own eggs.

What's wrong with these sickos who treat living, feeling creatures this way. Disgusting human beings. Completely disgusting and shame on you.

[Mo33333333]

11:18 PM on 11/28/2011

you hit the nail on the head....a company is in the unfortunate position of hiring us, the society we have created, to work on its farms. Im sure management of a major corporation does not want its valuable money making chickens treated in this manner. Its videos like this that high light why our prisons are full, kids commit suicide in schools from bulllying, and why elder, child, and spousal abuse is at an alltime high. You can blame meat eaters all you want, but the fact is, its your neighbor, the kid walking down the street, the vidoe games, TV shows, lack of respect in schools, that generate such depraved people.....they just arent in jail yet. So, i will continue eating meat and hope that sick individuals like these find their way to jail some day.

[Nicole Lopes]

06:58 PM on 11/20/2011

I will definitely not be eating eggs anymore. I don't care what kind of animal but none of them deserve to be treated that way. We should take those guys and do the same thing to them and see how they feel.

[Mo33333333]

11:27 PM on 11/28/2011

i agree with what should be done with those guys. but go to your pantry and look on just about any label, trust me, you will be eating eggs again.....

[sourpatch575]

06:57 PM on 11/20/2011

I know all fast food chains are unhealthy and evil but, but I CAN'T RESIST! Mmm.. Big Mac!

[MrPragmatic]

07:20 PM on 11/20/2011

Boy, you really live a shallow life.

[Jeffer]

12:44 AM on 11/21/2011

Irony is wasted on some people.

[Mo33333333]

11:20 PM on 11/28/2011

and you are an enlightened individual by your own estimation???? please tell us how we should think.......its all about agreeing with your type, isnt it.

[stape45]

06:37 PM on 11/20/2011

Big Business really cares! (About the PR and the politics, that is.)