Tell Target: Animals deserve better!
On a typical egg factory farm, a hen is crammed into a battery cage roughly the size of a microwave with as many as nine other birds, where she is unable to spread her wings for her entire life. Each hen is forced to eat, sleep and defecate in the same limited space and is denied almost everything that is natural to her.
Mother pigs in the pork industry are routinely confined to "gestation crates," which are small cages that prohibit the sensitive, intelligent mom from even being able to turn around.
These conditions are not only cruel to animals, but they increase the spread of diseases like salmonella, leading public health and food safety organizations to oppose the caging of egg-laying chickens and crating of mother pigs.
Nearly a decade ago, Target pledged to eliminate battery cages and gestation crates from its egg and pork supply chains. However, the company has now changed its mind and decided to keep selling eggs and pork that come from caged chickens and crated pigs indefinitely. This means that millions of chickens and pigs will continue to suffer in squalid, miserable cages and crates for Target even though the company told customers it would do away with allowing such abuse.
Abused animals need your help. Please sign this petition to Brian Cornell, the CEO of Target, urging the company to keep its animal welfare promises and stop using cruel cages and crates.
Dear Mr. Cornell,
Many mother pigs in the pork industry are confined in cages (known as "gestation crates") so small that they can't even turn around. Similarly, millions of hens in the egg industry are locked in cages, which virtually immobilize them and prevent them from spreading their wings. In 2012, Target committed to moving away from gestation crates by 2022, and said in 2016 that it would adopt a 100% cage-free supply chain by 2025. I am deeply concerned that Target failed to keep both pledges and continues to sell pork and eggs from animals in extreme confinement.
Companies like Costco, McDonald's, Burger King, IHOP, Unilever, Cheesecake Factory, Nestlé, and dozens of others have all remained committed to reaching their pledges to eliminate cruel confinement from their supply chains—in some cases years before their initial goals—while Target has refused to keep its word. There is no excuse for Target to be falling short.
A recent poll asked Target shoppers across the country what they wanted to see from Target; a wide majority, 72%, stated that they'd positively view the store if it followed through with its animal welfare commitments.
For these reasons, I'm respectfully asking Target to honor its original animal welfare pledges and move away from gestation crates and battery cages immediately.
Signed,
[your name]
