Kroger Demands Elimination Of Gestation Crates

The Humane Society of the United States must be having a moment: First, they publicized Ke$ha as the "first global ambassador for animals" (focusing on work against shark finning — who knew?). Now, Kroger has called for a faster elimination of gestation crates.

"The Company is encouraging its suppliers to accelerate this already-occurring transition in the Kroger supply-chain," the company said in a statement today. Kroger has 2,435 locations in 31 states, according to the Humane Society of United States.

Although no details have been released concerning the timing of the elimination, larger companies have been consistently phasing out gestation crates. Last week, McDonald's followed through on their anti-gestation crate promise by laying out a plan to discard of gestation crate pork by 2022.

In addition to Mickey D's, Burger King, Wendy's, Denny's, and Safeway have all announced plans to buy pork from farms without gestation crates. Cargill is reportedly already 50 percent crate-free, while Smithfield and Hormel plan to end gestation crate usage by 2017.