Wild Oats eggs go cage-free and United Egg Producers cry foul

This week Wild Oats, the third largest natural foods grocer in the US, announced that it will only sell cage-free eggs in its stores. The Friday June 3 Denver Post (from Wild Oats's home state of Colorado) includes an article headed, "Wild Oats ruffling egg firm's feathers."

It tells us: "United Egg Producers, an Atlanta-based trade group, on Thursday blasted the natural-foods grocer, saying its move eliminates consumer choice, increases costs and spreads misinformation."

We read:
"United Egg Producers sent a letter to Wild Oats chief executive Perry Odak requesting a meeting at which it could explain its own Animal Care Certified program. The program allows caging of chickens, but cage sizes have increased by 50 percent in the past few years, United Egg Producers spokesman Mitch Head said. While he could not provide the cage size, he said they are typically larger than a sheet of notebook paper. Caging chickens allows producers greater control over their health, diet and behavior, he said."

The article concludes with this damning line:

"The Better Business Bureau has ruled that the Animal Care Certified logo is misleading and purports a higher standard than actually exists."

For more information on the misleading "Animal Care Certified" logo and photos of the horrendous living conditions for hens who produce eggs sold under that logo, please visit http://www.EggScam.com

You can read the whole Denver Post article at:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_2776823

And you can send a supportive letter, or a letter singing the praises of plant-based diets, to the Denver Post editor at: openforum [at] denverpost.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.

HSUS has asked that we thank Wild Oats for its cage-free egg policy and has a page set up to make that easy. Go to: https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_2005_wildoats_cageless


(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)