OAKVILLE, Ontario – Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurants will only serve chicken sourced from animals raised to meet the welfare standards established by the Global Animal Partnership. Restaurant Brands International, parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons, collaborated with animal welfare group Mercy For Animals on the new policies.
Standards developed by the Global Animal Partnership include:
- Using broiler breeds scientifically proven to have improved welfare outcomes;
- Providing chickens with more space (maximum stocking density of 6 lbs. per sq. ft.) and improved environments, including lighting, litter and enrichments; and
- Eliminating live shackling and dumping while ensuring that birds are rendered unconscious through a multi-step controlled atmospheric stunning before slaughter.
In December 2016, RBI announced its restaurants would eliminate poultry meat sourced from animals given antibiotics “critically important” to human medicine. And in September of the same year, the company committed to a timeline for sourcing only 100 percent cage-free eggs and eliminating gestation crates for pigs.
RBI will extend its current cage-free egg policy to Latin America to prohibit eggs sourced from caged hens there by 2025. Gestation crates for pigs will be eliminated in North America by 2022 and Latin America by 2025.
