Animal Rights Activists Target Wendy's in Canada, August 17, 2001 7:01 am EST

TORONTO (Reuters) - An animal rights activist was arrested in a Wendy's restaurant in Toronto on Thursday after jumping on the order counter and yelling to the lunch-hour crowd that Wendy's tortured animals to make its food.

Guy Stanford, a 36-year-old Toronto resident, rushed into the restaurant as 10 cohorts, some of them dressed as chickens, held signs outside saying "Wendy's closed for animal cruelty".

The protest was organized by the international animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

The Norfolk, Virginia-based organization declared war on Wendy's last month in the United States, saying the fast-food chain allows suppliers to break the birds' wings by slinging them into crates and that it buys from suppliers who cut off chicks' beaks with hot blades. PETA also says Wendy's buys from farms where pigs are tethered by the neck in stalls so small that the animals can't even turn around.

PETA ended a campaign against McDonald's last September when the world's biggest fast-food chain agreed to higher animal treatment standards. Its war against Burger King stopped in June after that company announced it would exceed McDonald's guidelines, the organization said in a statement.

Neil Lester, vice president of Wendy's Restaurants of Canada, Inc., a division of Wendy's International Inc., told Reuters Wendy's was involved in animal welfare programs, and had been cooperating with suppliers for years to improve standards of animal treatment.

-- Anonymous, August 18, 2001

Answers

The first Wendy's is located in downtown Columbus, OH, so Wendy's International does not take kindly to protests at that location. When PETA picketers protested outside, they were promptly arrested.

-- Anonymous, August 19, 2001