Bob Evans questioned by animal rights groups about poultry practicesBob Evans questioned by animal rights groups about poultry practices

Bret Thorn

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States confronted Bob Evans Farms executives at the restaurant company’s annual meeting on its practice of purchasing chickens and turkeys killed by electrical stunning.

Representatives of the animal rights groups also questioned Bob Evans Farms officials about when they would phase in the purchase of poultry slaughtered through controlled-atmosphere killing, or CAK.

PETA and HSUS, which are both minor shareholders of the company, maintain that CAK — in which oxygen that the birds breathe is replaced gradually by another nonpoisonous gas, suffocating them in their transport crate — is less cruel than conventional electrical-stunning methods.

PETA said some other restaurant chains, including KFC in Canada, casual-dining chain Ruby Tuesday and quick-service chains Quiznos and Subway, already purchased some birds killed by CAK.

Bob Evans spokeswoman Margaret Standing said neither organization was permitted to speak at the meeting because they did not submit requests to do so. But they did submit questions, which were responded to by board members during the meeting.

“The short answer on controlled-atmosphere killing is that we haven’t seen any research to date that there’s a consensus that it’s a better way to go than what we do now,” Standing said.

PETA’s corporate affairs coordinator, Kristina Addington, said her group was not satisfied with Bob Evans’ response. “They talked about their animal welfare panel, but they basically didn’t commit to phasing in controlled atmosphere killing,” she said, adding that PETA would continue to pressure the company.

It is a common practice for PETA to acquire a small amount of shares in restaurants and other food-related companies in order to attend shareholder meetings and voice their concerns about corporate purchasing decisions.

That practice has been copied in recent years by the Humane Society of the United States.

Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, which represents chicken producers and processors, disputed PETA’s claims that CAK was a more humane practice than the standard process of electrical stunning.

“We firmly believe that both electrical and gas systems are humane, and there’s no scientific consensus in favor of gas as more humane,” he said.

He added that he didn’t think PETA’s campaign was very effective.

“[The campaign] is going nowhere,” he said. “I don’t think anyone’s taking the bait. I think [restaurant companies] look at the science, which does not show how gas stunning is superior to electrical stunning, and some people raise grave doubts about it.”

He added that switching to CAK is costly.

“It requires a lot of new equipment and redesign and so forth, and it really has not caught on in this country or in Europe” for chicken slaughter, he said.

He did add, however, that CAK was becoming more popular with turkeys, noting that the larger birds are easier to shackle if they are stunned by gas.

Columbus, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms operates 569 Bob Evans restaurants and 145 Mimi’s Cafes.

The Chicken Council’s animal treatment guidelines can be downloaded here.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected].