At the Wegmans egg farm in Wolcott, NY, close to a quarter of a million hens are living their miserable lives in cramped battery cages, in which they are denied their natural instincts. Their feet never touch solid ground and they cannot spread their wings fully.

Please join us on Sunday, April 29 to encourage Wegmans to seek more humane alternatives for its egg farm! It's time to put the pressure back on the company!

When: Sunday, April 29
Time: 1:30pm - 2:45pm
Where: Wegmans Pittsford, 3195 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY

All signs and leaflets will be provided.

The libertarian argument, that customers should be allowed to choose what kind of eggs they want without government mandates, as put forward by Agriculture Commissioner F. Philip Prelli, holds no water — few would choose to inflict extra cruelty on the animals we eat for dinner, but people buy factory-farmed chicken, beef and pork all the same. They have no choice, in most cases. But a system that treats living things with unnecessary suffering and cruelty needs to be changed. A good place to start is to phase in a ban on unnaturally limiting cages for egg-laying hens.

The grocery chain is thinking of opting out of what has become a controversial business.

We've all been making lists and checking them twice, but let's not forget about the 750,000 hens at Wegmans Egg Farm in Wolcott, NY! All they want this holiday season is to be freed from their battery cages. Join Compassionate Consumers for a demonstration at the East Avenue store in Rochester, NY to remind Wegmans that Santa knows who's been naughty and who's been nice!

Date:

Saturday, December 23rd

Time:

1pm - 2:30pm

Location:

Wegmans East Avenue, 1750 East Avenue, Rochester, NY

Map

We're holding regular demonstrations until this cruelty ceases. All signs, DVDs, and vegan hot cocoa will be provided. Please dress warmly!

Katie Barber shivered in the stiff wind, but her sign, which read “Wegmans, Please Go Cage-Free,” didn’t tremble. The CA junior and about five of her fellow students protested conditions at Wegmans’ Wolcott egg farm.

“Their egg farm is very cruel,” the 17-year-old said. “Their chickens aren’t being cared for properly.”

We got some very positive responses from Wegmans customers in Canandaigua, and after the demonstration we stopped by Harvest Natural Market. We look forward to joining the students again soon, but we left some signs with them so they don't have to wait for us before they have another demo!

Monday, 11/13:

Leafleting at RIT, 9a - 2p

Tuesday, 11/14:

Leafleting at University of Rochester, 9a - 2p

Wednesday, 11/15:

Leafleting at SUNY Oswego, 9a - 2p

Thursday, 11/16:

Leafleting at Syracuse University, 9a - 2p

Friday, 11/17:

Leafleting at SUNY Fredonia, 9a - noon

Leafleting at Daemen College (Buffalo), 1p - 3p

Saturday, 11/18:

DATE/TIME CHANGE Wegmans Cruelty demo at East Avenue, 12:00p - 1:15p

Sunday, 11/19:

CANCELLED Leafleting at Eastman School of Music, Kilbourne Hall, 2p - 3p

Monday, 11/20:

DATE/TIME CHANGE Leafleting at SUNY Buffalo, 9a - noon

DATE/TIME CHANGE Leafleting at Buffalo State College, 1p - 3p

Wegmans Cruelty demo (by No Meat, Carrots Please) at Brockport, 5p - 6:30p

Tuesday, 11/21:

Leafleting at SUNY Brockport, 9a - 2p

Wednesday, 11/22:

DATE/TIME CHANGE Leafleting at MCC, 9a - 2p

Wegmans Cruelty demo (by No Meat, Carrots Please) at Ridgemont, 5p - 6:30p

Friday, 11/24:

Wegmans Cruelty demo at Pittsford, time TBD

Rochester IndyMedia event, 7p-9p, Joe's House of Hospitality, 402 South Avenue

Animal advocates will attempt to find a way to a business's heart — through its stomach. At the grand opening of the new Wegmans grocery store Sunday, activists will object to the treatment of birds on Wegmans Egg Farm by delivering a cake to store manager Blaine Forkell. The cake will be decorated with a chicken and read "Blaine, Birds Dont Belong in Cages."

"Wegmans keeps up to nine birds in cages the size of a filing drawer, called battery cages," explains a local activist. "Conscientious consumers do not want to support production methods that involve cruelty to animals, and well attempt to deliver that message in a way that hits home."

The title indicates a frustration at animals, but take the time to read Richard Gardner's blog post Maybe I shouldve just looked the other way when I first saw those damned ducks! and you'll see that he's more frustrated at government bureaucracy and buck-passing than he is at the animals he's trying to save. It's interesting to read about the lengths he goes, to the point of breaking the law, trying to make a small difference in the lives of some wild ducks.

It's easy enough for people to look away from a problem that's right in front of them, let alone a problem hidden inside of large animal factories around the county. In a world with so many problems to solve, Richard should be applauded for showing a kindness to animals that nobody else will, and for trying to get those that are supposed to be responsible for these animals to do something about the problem.

Compassion Over Killing, a group out of Washington, DC that we've always admired, is asking the Food and Drug Administration to protect consumers from misleading claims on egg cartons. Anyone who has watched the film Wegmans Cruelty knows how misleading these claims can be.

They've created a petition, co-filed by Penn Law Animal Law Project, to urge the FDA to "establish a uniform, market-wide regulation mandating the labeling of egg production methods on egg cartons."

And COK can use your help. They're asking people like you to familiarize yourself with what they're petitioning for, and then visit the FDA comment form to support the petition.

"Ben and Jerry's has always stood for progressive practices," CEO Walt Freese said Tuesday. "We have long-standing support for small family farms. When this issue was brought to our attention by the Humane Society, they provided information to us we previously didn't have."

We weren't sure what Wegmans was going to do when they saw our footage from their farm. It didn't work out like we had hoped. They say that some day they may consider cage-free production, but they continue their use of battery cages. We're glad they have a welfare expert now, and maybe they'll take her private recommendations seriously. Yet they still use a system designed so animals can't even walk for their entire adult lives. That isn't humane by any stretch of the term, and most customers don't like to think that Wegmans intentionally keeps animals in those conditions.

Ben and Jerry's quickly came to the realization that battery cage production was something they couldn't support. They didn't just demand better standards - they rejected the system entirely.

"The closer we got to the issue, the more we realized how complex it was. It required us to move beyond our own expertise. We received substantive input from a variety of experts and resources, all of which helped us to arrive at our decision," said Ben & Jerry's spokesman Rob Michalak.

We're glad to see Ben and Jerry's join the growing list of retailers that reject this cruel system animal agriculture. This is a huge win for humane consumers and the animals who produce our food. We can't wait for Wegmans to do the same.