Is the secret ingredient in McDonald's Egg McMuffins blatant animal cruelty?

From May to August 2013, a Mercy For Animals Canada whistleblower documented systemic violence and cruelty to chickens at a Burnbrae Farms egg supplier—McDonald's Canada's exclusive egg provider—in Morinville, Alberta. The disturbing undercover footage shows unconscionable abuses, including the following:

• Thousands of egg-laying hens crammed inside tiny wire battery cages, each hen with less space than a single sheet of notebook paper to live her entire miserable life, unable to spread her wings, walk, or engage in other natural behaviours
• Workers smashing the heads of chicks and then throwing them still alive and conscious into plastic garbage bags to slowly suffocate
• Chickens trapped in cage wire, mangled by factory machinery, and left to suffer from open wounds and torn beaks without proper veterinary care
• Dead hens left in cages with live hens still laying eggs for human consumption

After reviewing the undercover footage, Dr. Ian Duncan, Canada's leading expert on poultry welfare, stated: "The battery cages are overcrowded and the birds show extreme fear whenever a worker passes. The high number of trapped, sick and injured birds in the cages is unacceptable."

Chickens are intelligent and sensitive animals, yet these hens are crammed in tiny cages for their entire lives, never able to walk, perch, stretch their wings, or do nearly anything that comes naturally to them.

McDonald's in the European Union did away with these abusive cages back in 1998—15 years ago! It’s time for McDonald's Canada to do the same.

Please urge McDonald's Canada to do the right thing. Take action here.

Then take further action to prevent cruelty to chickens and other farmed animals by rejecting meat, dairy, and eggs and choosing compassionate plant-based foods.