NEW YORK, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The Open Wing Alliance launched a global animal welfare campaign urging leading food conglomerates Focus Brands and Groupe Le Duff to eliminate cruel battery cages from their egg supply chains. Led by 80 animal protection organizations across 63 countries, the global coalition calls on Focus Brands and Groupe Le Duff to release a cage-free commitment for all of its brands and locations globally.
Focus Brands—developer of global foodservice brands, including Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Jamba, Carvel, and Moe’s—operates in more than 6,000 locations in 60 countries. Focus Brands claims to be "committed to the wellbeing and humane treatment of all animals." Meanwhile, it sources its eggs from factory farms where egg-laying hens live in filthy and outdated battery cages.
Groupe Le Duff—a French conglomerate with 1,300 locations worldwide—owns several restaurant brands including French bakery, Brioche Dorée. Claiming to be committed to "high-quality, healthy dishes," it prides its bakery on the "freshness, friendliness, and simplicity" of its food. Still, its eggs come from hens confined to cruel battery cages.
"Major companies around the world are eliminating cages altogether, as they witness consumer demand for cage-free eggs growing every year," says Alexandria Beck, Director of the Open Wing Alliance. "Focus Brands and Groupe Le Duff must put action to their words and slogans—by putting a stop to the needless animal abuse taking place in their global supply chains. It’s time these restaurants make a meaningful animal welfare impact—something their customers are looking for from them."
On cage farms, hens are confined in cramped, filthy cages with six to ten other birds. The cages are so small and crowded, birds cannot engage in natural behaviors. Their bodies get caught in the caging, resulting in broken bones, deformities, and feather loss. Some hens, unable to move, end up trampled to death by cage mates. Eliminating battery cages markedly improves the wellbeing of hens raised in egg supply chains. While more must be done to make long-term changes to their quality of life, this is a significant first step.
As consumer demand continues to grow, industry leaders have been abandoning cages around the world. More than 100 global commitments to end the use of battery cages have been made by some of the largest companies in the world, including KFC, Burger King, Dunkin’, Krispy Kreme, Nestlé, Aldi, Kraft Heinz, and Shake Shack.
The campaign is led by the Open Wing Alliance, a global coalition founded by The Humane League and made up of 80 animal protection organizations from 63 countries united to improve the welfare of chickens raised in factory farms.
Sign the petitions today at FocusBrandsBrutality.com and LeDuffCruelty.com.
For more information about the Open Wing Alliance, please visit OpenWingAlliance.org. Follow along on Twitter @GlobalCageFree.
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SOURCE The Open Wing Alliance
