Meat + Poultry - October 2009 - 22

www.MeatPoultry.com Headlines
BY STEVE BJERKLIE
meatpoultry@sosland.com

Animal welfare by proxy
In early September, the Humane Society of the United States fi led a shareholder resolution "encouraging Tyson
Foods to begin offering some products
from chickens killed by a higher-welfare slaughter system called controlledatmosphere killing," a release stated.
The Tyson resolution is part of a

Interest group uses
shareholder resolutions
to promote CAS
wider shareholder strategy HSUS is
employing to create change at meat,
foodservice and retail companies.
Introducing shareholder resolutions
"enables another level of dialog with
the company, and the more dialog we
can have with them, the more likely
they are to phase out these cruel factory-farming methods," Paul Shapiro,
HSUS's senior director of the orga-

nization's Factory Farm Campaign,
told Meat&Poultry. "The question
is, 'Can we avoid the kind of polarized antipathy that has too often surrounded these issues?'"
The Society owns shares in 19
companies, including Tyson Foods,
Bob Evans Farms, Smithfield Foods,
Sara Lee, Wendy's, Safeway and WalMart, among others. The number
of shares varies by company; Shapiro said the Securities and Exchange
Commission requires at least $2,000
worth of stock ownership in order for a
shareholder to introduce a shareholder
resolution (HSUS owns 750 shares of
Tyson Foods, for example).
He said the resolution strategy has
proven effective. "In 2008, we fi led a
resolution with Safeway to use more
cage-free eggs and pork. That resolution didn't come up for a vote, but after

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22 * Meat&Poultry * October 2009 * www.MeatPoultry.com

we filed it the company worked with us
to double their cage-free egg supplies
to 6 percent and their cage-free pork
to 5 percent," he told Meat&Poultry.
A similar resolution fi led with Denny's was withdrawn after the company
agreed to use cage-free eggs.
HSUS stated, "Controlled-atmosphere killing would eliminate many
of the abuses by killing the birds with
a mixture of inert gases while they
are still in their transport crates. The
method is used widely in Europe and
is becoming more popular in the U.S.
Many major poultry retailers - including Quiznos, Ruby Tuesday, Safeway, Harris Teeter, Winn-Dixie and
Costco - have begun using poultry
slaughtered by controlled-atmosphere
killing. Others - including Burger
King, Chipotle, Popeye's, Hardee's
and Carl's Jr. - give purchasing preference to suppliers that switch to the
method."
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said: "We're still in the process
of reviewing the proposal from HSUS
and have not yet determined what action we may take in response. However, we can tell you similar proposals have been submitted in the past
and rejected by our shareholders." In
2007, a shareholder proposal similar
to HSUS's was presented to the company's stock owners by People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals, which
elicited this response from Tyson's
board of directors:
"The company has a long-standing policy with respect to the humane
treatment of animals and to ensure
humane animal handling and care.
Acting on this commitment, in November 2003 the company established
an Office of Animal Well-Being,
which advises company executives
and management regarding animal
welfare issues. In addition, the Office of Animal Well-Being develops
animal handling training materials
for company team members and conducts training and audits with respect
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Meat + Poultry - October 2009

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