ACTIVISTS BEARING CAKE URGE WEGMANS TO CUT OUT CRUEL CAGESFor Immediate Release:
October 13, 2006
Contacts:
Erin Marcus, (443) 756-7344, einodia@yahoo.com
Warrington, PA – Animal advocates will attempt to find a way to a business’s heart—through its stomach. At the grand opening of the new Wegmans grocery store
Sunday, activists will bring attention to the suffering of hens at Wegmans Egg Farm by delivering a cake to store manager Blaine Forkell. The cake will be decorated with a chicken and read, “Blaine, Birds Don’t Belong in Cages.”
Date: Sunday, 15 October
Time: 12:00 noon
Place: Wegmans Warrington, 1405 Main St., Warrington,
PA
Wegmans-brand eggs are produced by cramming hens into barren, wire “battery cages” so small they can’t even spread a wing. At Wegmans’ 700,000-hen egg facility in Wolcott, NY investigators from Rochester, NY-based Compassionate Consumers found many hens covered with feces and open sores, living on top of their dead and dying cage-mates. Many hens had suffered painful beak mutilations, a result of beak-trimming, done only to prevent birds from pecking each other in this stressful environment.
“Conscientious consumers do not want to support production methods that involve cruelty to animals,” said a Lansdowne, PA activist, “and we are attempting to deliver that message to Wegmans in a way that hits home.”
The activists—some traveling from Virginia and Maryland for the opening of the new store—want Wegmans to develop a plan in agreement with The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to eliminate battery cages from its egg farm. Other food retailers have recently stopped selling battery cage eggs, including grocery
giants Whole Foods and Wild Oats. In November, 2005, organic food chain Trader Joe's agreed to make its own brand of eggs cage-free. Battery cages are considered
so cruel that they have been banned in many countries, including those comprising the entire European Union.
A demonstration outside the store is also planned. The cake, the activists assure, does not contain eggs or any other animal products.
For more information or to watch the documentary visit www.WegmansCruelty.com
