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Victory: PETA Wins 'Shameway' Campaign!"'Consumers can move retailers in directions they don't want to
go,' said [Linda Toby] Oswald-Felker, Safeway's vice-president of
public affairs. She cited the recent 'Shameway' campaign waged
against the company by the People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals. 'They turned on the light of an issue we need to address,'
she said. PETA's video footage of animal welfare violations by
Safeway suppliers led to charges of animal cruelty and the
introduction of new measures by the grocer." On May 15, 2002, after more than 100 demonstrations spanning every state and province where Safeway operates, PETA called off its "Shameway" campaign when the company agreed to meet PETA's demands by implementing new animal welfare standards. In doing do, Safeway became the first grocery-store chain—and the first Fortune 500 company—in U.S. history to pledge to make much-needed improvements in the living and dying conditions of farmed animals. Under PETA and Safeway's agreement, Safeway committed to immediately implementing unannounced audits at Seaboard Farms in Oklahoma, a major supplier of pig meat, where a PETA undercover investigator caught on videotape the fact that screaming pigs were beaten, bludgeoned, and slammed against the floor. Safeway has pledged to stop working with suppliers that fail audits, and the company continues to work cooperatively with PETA in order to improve the lives and deaths of the animals it sells Update: In 2008, following extensive further negotiations, Safeway and PETA announced a new agreement that made Safeway the industry leader on animal welfare. Safeway agreed to push its suppliers of chicken and turkey flesh to switch to a far less cruel method of slaughter. Safeway also agreed to purchase a significant amount of eggs and pig flesh from suppliers that don't confine animals to metal cages so small that they can barely move.
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