The Belgian animal rights organisation GAIA staged a protest outside the McDonald’s on Place de la Bourse in Brussels on Thursday 29 August to kick off a new campaign calling for the fast-food chain to commit to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC).
Around 13:30, members of the organisation set up a large banner advertising the 'Unhappy Meal', a parody of McDonald's famous children's meal. As one volunteer posed as a sad version of the multinational's mascot Ronald McDonald, two others donning McDonald's employee uniforms handed out grim goodie bags branded with 'I'm not lovin' it' to curious passers-by asking "Why don't you like McDonald's ?"
Belgian and American influencers were gifted elaborate Unhappy Meals containing eerie replicas such as a sauce packet labelled 'Chicken Blood' and a box of 'Sad Chicken McNuggets'.
The peaceful protest kicked off the organisation's new 'Unhappy Meal' campaign which aims to convince McDonald's to sign the BCC.
Other fast-food competitors, such as Subway and KFC, have already committed to the policy's standards for chicken raising. As have supermarket chains like Colruyt and Delhaize. GAIA's action coordinator, Galia Van Der Kar, considers these standards to represent "the minimum viable for chickens."
Animal welfare organization Gaia launches the 'Unhappy Meal' at the McDonald's fastfood restaurant in the city center of Brussels on Thursday 29 August 2024. Credit: Belga / Lou Lampert
She explained that the chicken meat found in Belgian McDonald's comes from livestock farms that subject broiler chickens (type of chicken specifically bred and raised for meat production) to "cruel conditions."
The fast-growing chicken breeds found in conventional livestock farms reach their slaughter weight in as little as 40 days. With no access to the outdoors, they are confined to a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper, where the ammonium used to clean their litter burns their skin and causes them respiratory problems.
In Belgium, over 90% of the 300 million animals killed for food every year come from the intensive livestock farms that supply McDonald's GAIA's director of operations Sébastien De Jonge told the Brussels Times. "McDonald's is a leader in chicken fast food, so this is a reality in Belgium and it is a reality at McDonald's," he said.
Despite GAIA attempting to get the fast-food chain to agree to the BCC for a number of years, McDonald's continues to refuse, citing an industry-commissioned study which analysed the environmental impact of chicken farming according to the BCC's standards.
The results of the study state that BCC farming would pollute more and be less environmentally-friendly and are widely contested. De Jonge explained that, for example, the study does not take into account the lower mortality rate of BCC farming, which would decrease the amount of corpses to clear up.
"To not commit because of pseudo-environmental reasons is really bullshit," said De Jonge. "We are a pragmatic organisation. We are not asking McDonald's to stop producing chicken nuggets, but we are asking them for a small additional step in the right direction towards better conditions."
The organisation invites those interested in the campaign to visit the www.unhappymeal.be website and send their prewritten protest email to McDonald's.
