Shareholder Resolution Asks Meat Giant to Take Action to Reduce Animal Suffering
For Immediate Release:
May 25, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
Westborough, Mass. — PETA, which owns stock in BJ's Wholesale Club, will present a resolution to executives at the company's annual meeting in Westborough on Thursday. PETA wants BJ's to purchase all its turkeys from suppliers that use a less cruel method of poultry slaughter called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK) by the end of 2012 and to require its chicken suppliers to switch to CAK within four years. Many grocery chains and restaurants—including A&P, Harris Teeter, KFCs in Canada, Kroger, Quiznos, Ruby Tuesday, and Winn-Dixie—already buy birds who are killed by CAK.
When: Thursday, May 26, 11 a.m.
Where: Doubletree Hotel, 5400 Computer Dr., Westborough
"BJ's should be ashamed that it is lagging behind its competitors in improving conditions for the chickens and turkeys who end up on its shelves," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "There's a way to prevent birds from being scalded to death or having their throats cut while they are still conscious, and consumers are clamoring for it, so it makes sense for BJ's to take action to stop this abuse."
Currently, birds who are killed for BJ's are dumped onto conveyor belts and slammed upside down by their legs into metal shackles—a procedure that often results in broken wings and broken legs. Birds are still conscious when their throats are cut, and many are then scalded to death in defeathering tanks. All these abuses can be eliminated by using CAK, a method in which the oxygen that chickens and turkeys breathe is slowly replaced with a nonpoisonous gas that puts the birds "to sleep" while they are still in their transport crates.
PETA's shareholder resolution is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org/cak.
