It’s clear that salad chains fulfill a lot of checkboxes for the conscious consumer. But while they may be good for your health, how do they measure up in terms of animal welfare?
Now more than ever, consumers want greater transparency about the animal products they purchase. Studies repeatedly show that Americans highly value animal welfare, often above all other issues. Businesses have the ability and responsibility to have the highest standards of animal welfare.
In this report, we have identified 10 of the top U.S. salad chains and their animal welfare policies. Find out below which companies have welfare commitments for chickens used for meat, pigs used for meat, and hens used for eggs.
Consumers like you are driving this change! We need you to speak up now in support of animal welfare and demand those companies that refuse to allow mother pigs to turn around, refuse to give hens space to spread their wings, and allow the worst abuses for chickens in their supply chains to raise their standards.
The following companies have refused to acknowledge and prioritize animal welfare in their supply chains and make a public commitment to improve the lives for pigs, chickens, and hens.
Join us in calling on each company to end the worst abuses in their supply chains!
Saladworks has adopted a crate-free policy for pigs and a chicken welfare policy, yet it’s hard to understand why a cage-free egg policy wouldn’t be included in their animal welfare priorities.
Contact Saladworks now and ask them to raise their standards for hens and go cage-free!
The following salad chains have all committed to comprehensive welfare policies for pigs, chickens and hens in their supply chains.
Businesses have the ability and responsibility to have the highest standards of animal welfare. Here are the issues we're asking the top salad chains to address.
Instead of providing mother pigs an adequate amount of space, factory farms force them into crates so small they can’t even turn around. Crates prohibit farmed animals from engaging in their instincts to forage, root, nest, and socialize, causing extreme stress and frustration.
Crates are banned in nine states in the U.S. – Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island – as well as in the United Kingdom and Sweden.
The serious problems for chickens used for meat consist of three main issues: extreme overbreeding, overcrowding, and traumatic slaughter methods. They are bred to grow at an alarmingly unnatural rate, which causes leg deformities, organ failure, and heart attacks. Each flock, which consists of tens of thousands of birds, are kept in dirty, windowless sheds, forced to live in their own waste with ammonia levels so concentrated that many suffer from painful chemical burns. When these birds are brought to slaughter, they are violently shackled upside down. Their throats are then slit, often while they’re still conscious.
The Better Chicken Commitment addresses these problems and over 400 leading companies already adopted the policy including KFC, Burger King, Chipotle, Starbucks, Compass Group, Whole Foods, HelloFresh, General Mills, Unilever, and Nestlé.
Selectively bred to produce the maximum number of eggs, hens spend up to two years packed in wire cages with six other birds. The cages are so small and crowded that hens cannot even spread their wings or exhibit other natural behaviors.
Companies and consumers are driving a market shift to 100% cage-free eggs, recognizing the misery of hens living in barren, wire cages. Nine U.S. states have banned cages for hens, including Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, California, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
