Florence | Be a Seed for Change

A shocking undercover video released on Friday reveals gruesome and scary conditions in the production of McDonald’s Egg McMuffins.

Tell McDonald’s to stop torturing chickens and switch to cage-free eggs

The video is hard to watch. Chicks’ beaks are seared off. Male chicks are tossed in plastic bags to suffocate. Hens live out their entire lives in wire battery cages, packed wing to wing. And dead chickens are left to rot in the cages that serve as living quarters for remaining chickens. Outside of these standard operations, staff members are shown swinging a bird around by its feet and crushing a chick alive.

Mercy For Animals is the group that carried out the undercover investigation. Now, it has started a petition on Change.org to get McDonald’s to abandon these kinds of cruel and inhumane practices altogether by going cage-free. Will you sign Mercy For Animals’ petition to get McDonald’s to commit to purchasing 100% cage-free eggs in the US?

Right after the video aired on Friday, McDonald’s cut ties with Sparboe Farms, whose facilities and staff in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado are documented in the investigation. But cutting ties with Sparboe Farms won’t end the torture of chickens for Egg McMuffins. The kind of abhorrent conditions at Sparboe are actually standard among battery cage egg suppliers. The only way McDonald’s can guarantee its eggs aren’t produced in the same conditions is to go 100% cage-free.

And McDonald’s has already done this for their locations in Europe, where McDonald’s eggs are already guaranteed to be 100% cage-free.

With the mega fast-food chain dropping Sparboe Farms, it’s clear that the public outcry generated by Mercy For Animals’ investigation is having a big impact. Now is the time to push McDonald’s to take real, meaningful action to distance itself from all battery cage eggs and not just move to another battery cage egg supplier. Tell McDonald’s to publicly commit to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs now:

http://www.change.org/petitions/urge-mcdonalds-to-stop-torturing-hens-for-egg-mcmuffins

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Stephanie and the Change.org team

P.S. People are taking action on important issues using Change.org everyday. Please check out these urgent petitions that need your support:

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Paolo Ziritti survived 18 months of torture and abuse in a “clinic” in Ecuador trying to “cure” her of being a lesbian. A brave group of women called Fundacion Causana started a petition to shut down the 187 remaining “ex-gay clinics” like the one Paola was forcibly confined in.
Anthony Hardwick is leading a campaign to Save Thanksgiving for workers and consumers. Join more than 190,000 people calling on Target to not open at midnight on Thanksgiving for Black Friday sales.
The musical group Florence + the Machine is known for music videos that push the envelope, but Catherine Burks thinks their latest goes too far. Join Catherine in calling on the band to remove prevalent racist imagery from Florence + the Machine’s new video.
The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages started a petition to support legislation in the New York state Senate to shut down the New York City’s abusive horse-drawn carriage industry.

What a historic day!

I’m thrilled that today, thanks to your voice and the hard work of Governor Cuomo and so many committed organizations and elected officials, New York has become the latest state to pass marriage equality.

Last night, the New York legislature stood up for equality for all New Yorkers and spoke loudly in support of the simple proposition that every New Yorker should be able to marry the person they love.

But our work is not done.

Even once our LGBT friends and family are legally able to marry here in New York, the Defense of Marriage Act will prohibit them from enjoying over 1,000 federal rights and privileges that are afforded straight married couples. While it won’t be easy, we can overturn DOMA – but we need thousands of grassroots activists like you to stand up and demand repeal.

Click here to join me and Democracy For America in urging Congress to repeal this regressive and discriminatory law. For only once every legally married couple in the United States is treated equally under federal law can we fulfill the true meaning of marriage equality.

The Defense of Marriage Act is truly damaging. Every day, thousands of legally married LGBT men and women around the country are unable to take advantage of rights and privileges – from hospital visitation to inheritance rights to health benefits – that straight married couples take for granted.

Like DFA member Florence P. of Brushton, NY who sent in her story of how DOMA has impacted her:

My late partner and I were as close to a legal married couple as we could get in the state of New York. We were together for 32 1/2 years, hoping to one day marry in our state. She died in 2006. I am not considered to be her widow. I am not considered to be legally related to her at all even though we shared our lives completely for over 32 years. It’s time to repeal DOMA.

I agree with Florence. We must end this unjust policy. But much like the historic vote last night in New York, it’s going to take a lot of hard work and our collective grassroots advocacy. And I believe it’s going to take telling more stories like Florence’s.

If you’ve been impacted by DOMA, click here to sign the petition and tell us your story at repealDOMA.com. It’s imperative that we begin to tell the stories of the Americans hurt every day by the injustice of DOMA, so that we can put faces and names to this discriminatory policy. Only then will we truly be able to start changing hearts and minds, both among my colleagues in Congress and around the country.

We did it with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and we’ll do it with DOMA. The time to start is now.

Thank you for standing with me and DFA for equality for all Americans.

– Kirsten

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand