Piglet protest: After McDonald’s, Burger King is also trading

As of 2011, no meat from neutered boars

After McDonald’s declared that the company no longer wants to process meat from castrated pigs from 2011, Burger King is now also following this line. Since last year, the German Animal Welfare Association has been intensively drawing attention to the anesthetized castration of piglets with the "Piglet Protest" campaign. The association has just tightened its campaign with an attack on the fast food chains Burger King and McDonald's. By 2011 at the latest, both companies want to end the piglet torture for their products.

"This is a step forward for animal welfare, which Burger King is now taking. The pressure on all other suppliers of pork products is increasing every day. We call on all suppliers not to hesitate any longer and to give clear deadlines. They can be earlier than 2011, there are alternatives, "said Wolfgang Apel, President of the German Animal Welfare Association, welcoming Burger King's current decision.

The German Animal Welfare Association points out that animal welfare-compliant alternatives such as the EU-wide vaccination against boar taint and anesthesia with the anesthetic isoflurane are already available, which could be used immediately.

The Quality and Safety GmbH (QS) acted under pressure from the German Animal Welfare Association. The piglets, whose meat is later sold under the QS seal, are given an analgesic to treat the pain caused by the wound. However, this does not represent a solution for the German Animal Welfare Association, because the effect of such a painkiller is so weak that the surgical pain remains unchanged. Castration continues to be done without anesthetic.

In order to prevent the development of the typical boar taint, up to 22 million male piglets are castrated in Germany every year. Without anesthetic - with full consciousness and full pain sensation, the piglets are surgically removed with a sharp knife up to the age of seven days both testicles. The German Animal Welfare Act legalizes this torment.

The animal rights activists therefore appeal to consumers: Vote against this torment legitimized by the Animal Welfare Act www.ferkelprotest.de and boycott products containing meat from pigs that were castrated without anesthesia as piglets. Avoid pork or only buy it if you can be sure that the piglets have been painlessly castrated under anesthesia.

More information on deepening

You can find further information on piglet castration from a veterinary point of view at animal-health-online.de here: www.animal-health-online.de/kastrat/.

Source: Bonn [ German Animal Welfare Association ]