Canandaigua, New York – Students from Canandaigua Academy will gather in front of Wegmans to protest the cruel conditions at Wegmans Egg Farm. All are welcome to join!

Date:

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Time:

12:00 noon

Place:

Wegmans Canandaigua, 345 Eastern Blvd, Canandaigua, NY (park at the neighboring Post Office)

Katie Barber, the student organizing the demonstration, was appalled to learn that Wegmans hens are confined to cages so small that they cannot walk or spread their wings. “You would never think that Wegmans could do things like this to animals and get away with it,” she said. Video footage from Wegmans Egg Farm shows birds living with the corpses of other hens, some drowning in liquid manure. Katie has been a strong advocate for farmed animals at her school, and even plans on showing the documentary Wegmans Cruelty to her class.

Compassionate Consumers director Adam Durand, who took the video footage at the facility, will be at the demonstration. “It’s great to see young people like Katie engaging the public with this hard-to-swallow message. Every egg represents 24 hours of confinement and suffering for a hen. It’s up to the consumer to demand more compassionate practices, and for responsible companies to follow through.”

Katie says that it took her time to come to terms with the treatment of animals on factory farms. “At one point, I finally realized I was just making excuses,” she says. She has since convinced many of her friends to boycott battery cages eggs like those produced and sold by Wegmans.

The Compassionate Consumers documentary, Wegmans Cruelty, shows up to nine chickens crowded into filing-cabinet sized cages at Wegmans’ Wolcott facility, often exhibiting signs of illness and neglect. The organization released the video in 2005 in an attempt to convince Wegmans to make inexpensive but meaningful improvements at their factory farm. The documentary is available for free on the Internet.

From its headquarters in Rochester, Wegmans Food Markets operates 71 stores in five states. Wegmans believes that “good people, working toward a common goal, can accomplish anything they set out to do.”

Compassionate Consumers is a Rochester-based organization dedicated to providing the public with information about how animals are raised for their food. Compassionate Consumers members are calling on Wegmans customers to boycott battery cage eggs. For more information visit: WegmansCruelty.com