Media

June 25, 2003

Animal Welfare's Unexpected Allies
The New York Times., Business Day Section, p. C1
By DAVID BARBOZA

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The cameras are rolling here at Purdue University's
animal research center, tracking a half-dozen pigs, each with an ink streak
slathered across its back for identification.

The pigs have a choice to make. They can use their snouts either to let them
into a pen where they can socialize with other pigs, or they can stay put with
their food.

"We want to get the animal's perspective, to see what they prefer," explains
Edmond A. Pajor, assistant professor of animal behavior and welfare at Purdue.
"We want to know: How important is social contact and space? What do they
like and need?"

A decade ago, big food companies would have dismissed such research as silly,
a deviation from the advances in industrial farming that have allowed them to
reduce the cost of hamburgers and chicken nuggets. But today, those companies
are not just taking the research seriously; they are financing it.

McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Wendy's have all underwritten research and
recently hired what are called animal welfare specialists to help them devise
new standards aimed at ensuring more humane treatment of the animals destined
for their kitchens. Industry trade groups are promoting the new rules and
conducting audits of livestock producers to assure they are being followed, though
some groups express concern about higher costs and other complications.

Experts say that the food industry is responding to growing health concerns
and criticism of the nation's factory farms, which raise over eight billion
animals (mostly chickens) a year in giant production and slaughtering operations.
Looming regulations - most immediately in Europe, but also in the United
States - are adding to the pressure.

As a result, after decades of crowding more and more animals into smaller and
smaller stalls and pens, livestock producers and processors are being asked
to create more space for animals, to reduce their reliance on growth-promoting
drugs, and to transport and slaughter animals in more humane ways.

Soon, cages might be eliminated from some factory farms, and animals that not
long ago were clubbed before being killed - and are now knocked unconscious
by electric stun guns - could be first put to sleep gently, with gas.

"The whole drumbeat in the U.S. for the last century has been to reduce the
cost of food," said Todd J. Duvick, a food analyst at Banc of America
Securities. "Now people are paying attention to things like how food is produced and
how animals are treated."

The changes are being applauded even by People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, or PETA, an organization best known for guerrilla attacks on the fur
industry and fast-food outlets, and for publicizing photographs of what they
say are cruel acts being performed on animals.

"McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's have done some pretty good stuff, but
they had to be prodded into it,"' said Dan Shannon, a spokesman for PETA. "These
animals are not living in luxury suites being hand-fed grapes, but this is an
improvement."

Last week, the McDonald's Corporation said it would begin insisting that its
suppliers cut their use of antibiotics in sick animals and eliminate the use
of certain growth-promoting antibiotics that are fed to healthy animals,
particularly chickens. For several years, health professionals in the United States
and Europe have worried that the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals might
eventually reduce the medicines' effectiveness in humans.

Health officials applauded McDonald's announcement, but some producers
criticized the company for bowing to public pressure and barring the use of some
antibiotics that are still deemed safe by regulators.

"The pork industry wants to make sure sound science is driving the industry
and not emotion," said Cynthia Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the National Pork
Board. "McDonald's is trying to be laudable, but their position was based on
marketing."

Whether motivated by marketing concerns or social conscience, McDonald's has
stepped to the forefront of the animal welfare movement, at least among
corporations.

McDonald's has pressed the egg industry, for instance, to increase by half
the amount of space it allocates to egg-laying hens in factory hen houses. The
company - which buys two billion eggs a year - has also told its egg suppliers
to stop the practice of temporarily withholding food and water to induce hens
to lay larger eggs.

Similarly, McDonald's now presses beef suppliers to reduce their use of
electrical prods and encourages chicken producers to use automated equipment to
gently gather chickens, in place of unskilled laborers who grab birds and stuff
them into cages. At slaughterhouses, it insists on boxes that make livestock
more comfortable as they are stunned into unconsciousness before being killed.

Having established a detailed set of guidelines for the treatment of animals,
McDonald's has begun enforcing the standards with random audits of its
suppliers. KFC and Burger King are doing the same.

"Essentially, it's the right thing to do," said Chet England, the chief food
safety officer at Burger King.

But it is McDonald's, as the world's largest restaurant chain and one of the
biggest purchasers of animal products, whose evolving stance is driving change
throughout the food industry.

"There will be differences on details, but not on the bigger picture," said
Gary Weber, executive director of regulatory affairs at the National
Cattlemen's Beef Association. "There might be disagreement on the use of branding,
castration or de-horning, and some other matters."

According to McDonald's officials, the turning point in the company's
attitudes came in 1997, when executives met for the first time with Temple Grandin,
an associate professor at Colorado State University who is an expert in animal
behavior and welfare issues.

"We had an interest in this stuff, but couldn't figure it out," said Bob
Langert, the senior director of social responsibility at McDonald's. "We went to
Colorado State and saw her, and it was magic. She pitched her program, and we
thought it was perfect."

Executives found Dr. Grandin's approach "scientific" and not "emotional," Mr.
Langert said. They marveled at her research techniques: how she measured
animal behavior and conditions; how she paid attention to animal vocalizations;
how she studied their response to electric prods; how she catalogued their
adaptations to various conditions.

Indeed, Dr. Grandin often gets down on all fours to walk through a processing
plant, as if she were an animal. She has autism, and she says things that
bother her because of her condition, like loud noises, can bother animals, as
well, McDonald's officials said.

McDonald's has also turned to animal behavior and welfare researchers here at
Purdue University, where there are studies looking into such topics as how
female pigs socialize and whether cows feel pain when their tails are clipped.

In one research lab, there are jars filled with pig brains and tails lined up
on a shelf. Scientists will dissect the specimens to try to determine whether
the animals suffered in various experiments run by the lab to simulate
factory farm conditions.

Researchers here are also looking at animal handling techniques, barn
lighting - almost anything that could cause stress or harm to an animal. They watch
hundreds of hours of videotape of animals sleeping, eating, playing and
fighting, recording each monotonous detail.

"It's pretty painful to watch those tapes," said Vanessa Kanaan, 22, a
first-year Purdue graduate student who is recording piglet behavior on six cameras
in a small research cabin. "I look at how they budget their time. Is there
cross-suckling? I look at disputes before and after I mix them up. I want to
better understand the social effects."

How far animal welfare activists will go in pressing for changes is still
unclear. Just yesterday, PETA applauded after David C. Novak, chief executive of
Yum Brands - the owner of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and other fast-food chains
- was doused with a blood-colored substance and stuck with feathers in an
animal rights protest in Hanover, Germany.

PETA says that KFC has announced new animal welfare measures but has not gone
far enough in carrying them out. Jonathan Blum, a spokesman for Yum, said
that KFC recently adopted industry-leading guidelines on animal welfare. He
called the attack on the Yum chief an "act of corporate terrorism" that should be
prosecuted.

Other big restaurant chains say they are mainly interested in preventing
abuse, not creating happier happy meals. "We're not experts on that; we're a
restaurant company," said Mr. Langert of McDonald's. "But there are experts in
this, and they'll help us draw the line."

Global companies like McDonald's are also being nudged by rulemakers in
Europe, where the animal welfare movement has made more headway with government
officials.

The European Union has already said by 2012 it will ban the keeping of
pregnant pigs in stalls that do not allow room to turn around. In Germany, officials
are encouraging pig farmers to give their pigs 20 seconds of human contact
each day - and a little tender loving care.

"Pigs should be kept happy with two or three toys to stop them fighting each
other, namely toys that have wooden grips or straw dummies," a government
official told a newspaper last year. "Every pig must have daylight, and in winter
extra lighting should be provided to stop the pigs becoming depressed."

Richard Kirkden, a 34-year-old Purdue postdoctoral student whose expertise is
animal motivation, said that his motivation was doing what was right for
animals.

"I'm not looking at production, I'm looking at the ethical side," he said.
But ethical behavior can have a payoff. "In the U.K., where I come from, people
will pay a premium for the better-cared-for animals."

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company