Burger King Going Cage-Free By 2017

No. 3 fast food chain Burger King announced on Wednesday morning that it would convert its beef and poultry operations to cage-free farm raising.

The cage-free animal movement has been pushed by The Human Society and Burger King now becomes the first chain to officially vow for a cage-free system that will allow animals to live healthier, happier lives.

Given the company’s massive size the change to cage-free farming will not be a quick process with Burger King vowing to have its operations changed over by 2017.

Speaking about the fast food chains decision to go cage free a spokeswoman for the Human Society said in a statement:

“So many tens of thousands of animals will now be in better living conditions.”

Forget “tens of thousands,” Burger King annually uses hundreds of millions of eggs and tens of millions pounds of pork annually. Currently 9% of poultry and 20% of cows are raised cage-free at the fast food organizations operations.

Give the sheer size of Burger King and the fact that other fast food chains will likely follow suit the move is being called a “game changer” that will likely affect how farming in the United States is handled by fast food chains.

Under caged conditions hens are only given 8.5-by-11 sheets of paper worth of space to move around while pork is produced by sows that are housed in narrow crates during their four-month pregnancies.

Would you be more likely to eat at Burger King or other fast food restaurants if you knew their animals were being properly raised?