Starbucks NZ targeted in global cage-egg campaign

Starbucks New Zealand targeted in global cage-egg campaign

Starbucks is being urged to go cage-egg free worldwide by over 55 major international animal protection organisations as part of a global campaign. The coordinated campaign asking for Starbucks to use exclusively cage-free eggs has just launched out of Europe at the 2018 summit of the Open Wing Alliance, of which SAFE is a member organisation.

In New Zealand, Starbucks is owned by Restaurant Brands which has 20 Starbucks café outlets around the country. So far Starbucks has given out mixed messages on this important welfare issue, with some international Starbucks territories adopting cage-free commitments and silence from others. Starbucks New Zealand serves cabinet food containing eggs including newly introduced menu items such as egg sandwiches and paninis.

At the 2017 Open Wing Alliance summit, SAFE was part of a global campaign launched against one of the world’s largest food manufacturer and consumer packaged goods companies, General Mills. This resulted in a commitment from General Mills to go cage-free globally by 2025, a policy affecting over 100 brands. Other food manufacture lines with cage-free policy for ingredient eggs in future product supply include Pepsico, Mondelez, Kellogg’s, McCain, Campbell’s, Unilever and Kraft Heinz.

“I have no doubt that the caging of hens will be brought to an end,” says SAFE campaigns director Mandy Carter. “I’ve been heartened to see the change globally and it’s because of kind people taking a stand for animals. Together, the Open Wing Alliance, and the caring public, will see this cruelty stop altogether.”

In New Zealand many café and convenience food competitors already have cage-free policy. The Coffee Club, Esquires Coffee, Columbus, Subway, Wendy’s, Burger King, McDonald’s, Hell Pizza, Burger Fuel, Pita Pit and Habitual Fix all have commitments moving them away from cage cruelty, currently covering whole eggs. In addition to whole egg policies, SAFE is in talks with many food service outlets and food manufacture brands to expand their commitment to ingredient eggs. Starbucks is lagging behind, with no policy for hen welfare on any eggs.

By New Zealand law, conventional battery cages have to be removed by egg producers by 2022. However, the egg industry was set to replace these cages with equally cruel colony cages. Hens are crammed into wire cages with only a space about the size of a magazine in which to live their entire lives. Both battery and colony cages prevent hens from exercising many of their natural behaviours, including fully stretching their wings and dust bathing.

Both internationally and domestically, the cage-free movement is growing exponentially. SAFE has successfully secured cage-free commitments from all New Zealand’s supermarkets.

SAFE is urging caring Kiwis to sign the international petition.

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