PETA Unhappy Meals Targeting Kids

[Isolder74]

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PETA Unhappy Meals Targeting Kids
Posted Aug 7th 2009 1:30PM by Sara Bonisteel (RSS feed)
Filed under: Fast Food, Food News
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The McCruelty Unhappy Meal. Photo: PETA
Kids hoping to grab a Happy Meal from McDonald's might end up with PETA's Unhappy Meal instead.

The animal rights organization lifted its moratorium on the McCruelty Campaign this year and since June has distributed Chicken McCruelty Unhappy Meals to McDonald's customers outside about a dozen restaurants around the country.

"McDonald's markets its food to children by packaging it in brightly colored boxes with toys," Lindsay Rajt, a spokeswoman for PETA, tells Slashfood. "But most kids really love animals, and if they knew that McDonald's suppliers were breaking the wings and legs of gentle animals like chickens, I think that you'd have to drag kids into McDonald's kicking and screaming."

The campaign, though, has parents "hatin' it."

A PETA protest of a McDonald's in Albany, N.Y., upset parents on Thursday, WXXA-TV reports.

"I don't want my son to be around something like this," parent Stephanie Gipson told the station. "This is not fair for a child."

But Rajt says children have seen worse things than PETA's Unhappy Meal, which comes "stained with blood" and containing a bloody rubber chicken, a cutout of a knife-wielding Ronald McDonald, photos of mutilated animals and a Chicken McCruelty T-shirt.

"Kids deserve to be told the truth and we really do need to give them credit," she says. "The bottom line is that they've really seen much worse in movies and videogames, and we all know that kids empathize with animals."

McDonald's told Slashfood that it expects the humane treatment of animals from its suppliers.

Our goal has always been to lead the industry by bringing about improvements in animal welfare including rigorous, ongoing audits of our suppliers' facilities.

"McDonald's works with leading independent animal welfare experts and makes decisions based upon science to promote continuous improvement in animal welfare as part of our broader sustainable supply chain initiatives," Bob Langert, McDonald's vice president of corporate social responsibility, says in a statement to Slashfood.

"McDonald's continues to support our chicken suppliers' use of both controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) and electrical stunning. There is no conclusive scientific consensus that one practice is better than the other, however, we recognize that in either method, good management practices are critical," he says. "It is also important to note that in the U.S., there are no large-scale chicken producers that currently use the CAS method, therefore demands to purchase chickens from this method to meet McDonald's supply needs are not viable."

PETA says it worked with McDonald's behind the scenes from 2000 to February 2009 before it re-instituted its McCruelty campaign. A PETA protest was expected Friday afternoon at a restaurant in South Burlington, Vt.

More hilarity from PETA! Where can I get my psycho Ronald Cut out?

[Slacker]

I want a t-shirt!

[Isolder74]

I want a t-shirt!

Doable as long as you don't buy it from PETA!

[Rahvin]

Do the shirts come in adult sizes? Does it have a picture of a diabolical Ronald McDonald?

I avoid McDonalds like the plague (whenever I give in to the occasional fry craving, within an hour or so I feel ill), but the comedy value here is just too much to miss out on.

[Slacker]

Well, the problem is I doubt they make a kid's t-shirt in 2XL.

Ah well. Honestly, and more legitimately on-topic, I don't understand the thought process that goes into their 'marketing' people's heads. There are ways to win a 'hearts and minds' campaign, and it really seems like they just don't *ever* understand them. It's almost willfully forgoing making the legitimate point and actually changing things for the sake of being as disruptive as possible.

[Lagmonster]

PETA is what happens when people who do not understand a concept are asked to sell a concept; they resort to conveying how the issue makes them feel rather than facts, and assume people think like they do rather than try to understand their target audience.

[Isolder74]

Oh and one other thing, why are they doing this is Vermont? Wouldn't a place like New York City get more press?

[General Zod]

Oh and one other thing, why are they doing this is Vermont? Wouldn't a place like New York City get more press?

I think that's why they're not doing it in a place like NYC. The backlash would be tremendous.

[Broomstick]

There is a deer eating my garden. If I convert that deer into Bambi burgers (hypothetically, to protect the innocent if not the deer) can anyone give me an address to which I can mail the deers' head and entrails to PeTA? I'm feeling... irritable today and PeTA has long been on my shit list.

Not that I'm an overwhelming fan of McDonald's. I was eating lunch there a lot last month because my employer was buying me lunch and that's where he drove us (I had a McDouble and a dollar fry with unsweetened tea - between the sane portions and physical labor it did not affect my waistline). But they are hardly the worst of the Evil Food Empires.

[Darth Wong]

I'm no big fan of PETA, but quite frankly if kids can't handle the image of bloody chicken bits, then maybe they shouldn't be eating chicken. People should know what they're eating. It's silly that a kid can actually eat chicken his whole life and not realize that animal bloodshed was involved.

[General Zod]

There is a deer eating my garden. If I convert that deer into Bambi burgers (hypothetically, to protect the innocent if not the deer) can anyone give me an address to which I can mail the deers' head and entrails to PeTA? I'm feeling... irritable today and PeTA has long been on my shit list.

They could probably use the extras.

Not that I'm an overwhelming fan of McDonald's. I was eating lunch there a lot last month because my employer was buying me lunch and that's where he drove us (I had a McDouble and a dollar fry with unsweetened tea - between the sane portions and physical labor it did not affect my waistline). But they are hardly the worst of the Evil Food Empires.

I won't eat there anymore because every time I make the mistake of doing so their burgers wind up making me lethargic, a tad noxious and make me want to go to sleep.

[Broomstick]

I'm no big fan of PETA, but quite frankly if kids can't handle the image of bloody chicken bits, then maybe they shouldn't be eating chicken. People should know what they're eating. It's silly that a kid can actually eat chicken his whole life and not realize that animal bloodshed was involved.

I think I was 6 or 7 when I caught my first fish out of a lake. With my father's guidance I cut the head off, cleaned and gutted it, and mom helped me panfry it for my dinner. Really, I was more squicked out by putting the worn on the hook.

Yes, I love animals - and I don't mean just for eating. I'm quite attached to my pets. That doesn't mean I have a problem with doing my own butchering. PeTA has the assumption that once people know The Truth, that meat is made of animals, they'll be won over. The truth is, a lot of people don't have a problem with meat being made from animals. Even young girls (such as I used to be) who love animals.

[Darth Wong]

Yes, I love animals - and I don't mean just for eating. I'm quite attached to my pets. That doesn't mean I have a problem with doing my own butchering. PeTA has the assumption that once people know The Truth, that meat is made of animals, they'll be won over. The truth is, a lot of people don't have a problem with meat being made from animals. Even young girls (such as I used to be) who love animals.

I agree. I'm just thinking of the woman quoted in the article who thinks it's offensive for PETA to show her kids pictures of bloody animals on the way into the McDonald's where they plan to eat the remains of those bloody animals. If her kids can't handle pictures of bloody chickens, they shouldn't be eating chicken. Otherwise, let them see the bloody chickens, shrug, and continue to eat their chicken anyway.

[The Yosemite Bear]

can we please send Pam Anderson, Bill Maher, and Ingrid Newkirk to the Austrailian Outback to discuss "ethics" with the Dingos, and other dangerous wildlife?

[Duckie]

Yes, I love animals - and I don't mean just for eating. I'm quite attached to my pets. That doesn't mean I have a problem with doing my own butchering. PeTA has the assumption that once people know The Truth, that meat is made of animals, they'll be won over. The truth is, a lot of people don't have a problem with meat being made from animals. Even young girls (such as I used to be) who love animals.

I agree. I'm just thinking of the woman quoted in the article who thinks it's offensive for PETA to show her kids pictures of bloody animals on the way into the McDonald's where they plan to eat the remains of those bloody animals. If her kids can't handle pictures of bloody chickens, they shouldn't be eating chicken. Otherwise, let them see the bloody chickens, shrug, and continue to eat their chicken anyway.

I personally agree, but a lot of people probably don't see it that way- they've trained themselves to disassociate cute animals from tasty food because they don't want to see the connection and own up to the fact that they have to take a lesser life to eat. We had a talk by some guy who circuits colleges talking about how animals being eaten = holocaust. There was a video full of sad montages of animals being abused or having their throats slit and the like while in factories.

Personally, I've never been able to disassociate meat from animals, so I wasn't that horrified, but everyone I know was. The worst I got out of it was some introspection while eating a sub 30 minutes later wondering if there was a way to painlessly kill an animal- don't Jews have kosher slaughter where they cut every artery and nerve in the neck with a knife sharp enough to cut paper or silk dropped on it, or such?

On the other hand, humanely slaughtered meat probably would cost significantly more so I couldn't afford eating it anyhow.

[Johonebesus]

Could it be that at least some parents aren't upset at the basic information, but the way it is presented? It's one thing to teach a six year old that poultry and beef start out as chickens and cows. It's another to give them pictures of a scary knife-wielding clown with the words "broken bones and scalded alive" under him.

[Broomstick]

The worst I got out of it was some introspection while eating a sub 30 minutes later wondering if there was a way to painlessly kill an animal- don't Jews have kosher slaughter where they cut every artery and nerve in the neck with a knife sharp enough to cut paper or silk dropped on it, or such?

Both Jews and Muslims use a technique that severs the main neck arteries and veins with an extremely sharp knife in one quick motion. Is it painless? Um... maybe, but regardless it certainly is damn quick, under a minute from slice to final death, with the animal losing all consciousness even sooner. As the animal must also be upright and moving under its own power - i.e. healthy - it also encourages at least minimal care for the animal's health and condition. Prior to the 20th Century is was probably the quickest and most reliable technique out there.

That said, these days many consider kosher/halal slaughter to be inhumane. There are devices that use a forceful blow to the head to render the animal unconscious/dead almost instantly.

[tim31]

Yeah, it's a pneumatically-driven bolt gun. I used to work with a guy whose other job was on a killing floor.

TIM: Oh right. So what do you think of the work?

LEIGH: (earnestly)I love it. The looks on their faces when you put the gun up to their heads...

TIM: Oh right.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Yes, I love animals - and I don't mean just for eating. I'm quite attached to my pets. That doesn't mean I have a problem with doing my own butchering. PeTA has the assumption that once people know The Truth, that meat is made of animals, they'll be won over. The truth is, a lot of people don't have a problem with meat being made from animals. Even young girls (such as I used to be) who love animals.

I agree. I'm just thinking of the woman quoted in the article who thinks it's offensive for PETA to show her kids pictures of bloody animals on the way into the McDonald's where they plan to eat the remains of those bloody animals. If her kids can't handle pictures of bloody chickens, they shouldn't be eating chicken. Otherwise, let them see the bloody chickens, shrug, and continue to eat their chicken anyway.

I personally agree, but a lot of people probably don't see it that way- they've trained themselves to disassociate cute animals from tasty food because they don't want to see the connection and own up to the fact that they have to take a lesser life to eat.

Well, personally it's not that I'm bothered by it in some ethical fashion; it's just that I don't want to think about dead animals and food at the same time. Nor do I want to think about vegetables I'm going to eat growing in dirt and having the occasional bug crawling on them, or about the fact that there's insect parts in everything we eat. It's not good for my appetite. I'd rather not have people bring up things like that right before I eat.

[Starglider]

Nor do I want to think about vegetables I'm going to eat growing in dirt and having the occasional bug crawling on them, or about the fact that there's insect parts in everything we eat. It's not good for my appetite.

What's wrong with insect parts? Nice crunchy protein, and vastly less likely to contain pathogens capable of making you ill than the mammal or avian meat.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Nor do I want to think about vegetables I'm going to eat growing in dirt and having the occasional bug crawling on them, or about the fact that there's insect parts in everything we eat. It's not good for my appetite.

What's wrong with insect parts? Nice crunchy protein, and vastly less likely to contain pathogens capable of making you ill than the mammal or avian meat.

Eh, they're just icky.

It's not a rational thing, but then if people were rational about food we'd all be grimly gnawing on some sort of tasteless "scientifically balanced for nutrition" wafers and drinking plain water.

[Broomstick]

Nor do I want to think about vegetables I'm going to eat growing in dirt and having the occasional bug crawling on them, or about the fact that there's insect parts in everything we eat.

Good thing you didn't eat lunch at my house today - I took a wicker basket into the backyard, pulled up a bunch of stuff, brought it back in, and washed the dirt and bugs off in the sink before putting it in bowls and adding salad dressing.

Well, OK, that's how you are. But seriously, it's never bothered me at all.

[phred]

They always have such interesting ways of spreading their message. I want one of those sad meals.

Good thing you didn't eat lunch at my house today - I took a wicker basket into the backyard, pulled up a bunch of stuff, brought it back in, and washed the dirt and bugs off in the sink before putting it in bowls and adding salad dressing.

You MURDERED those poor defenseless carrots!! I'm calling PETV

I have a friend who is a vegetarian on the grounds that if you want to eat meat, you should be willing to kill the animal in question to get it. This led to him giving several chickens he raised to my family because my dad didn't have a problem slaughtering them. Good times ensued.

[The Spartan]

Yeah, it's a pneumatically-driven bolt gun. I used to work with a guy whose other job was on a killing floor.

There's also electro-shock. I saw them use it on Gordon Ramsay's F-word program. He's raised turkeys, lambs and pigs and, if I remember right, every last one was shocked into unconsciousness, if not outright killed by the electricity, and then had it's throat slit.

[loomer]

I personally have an objection to this on the grounds that clowns are scary enough when you're like, six. You don't need to see them covered in blood with a knife too.

Seriously, that's just cruel to children with clown-fear - and clearly some kind of violation of a disabilities act!