NEWSBYPULIN MODI

In a joint press release with The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), fast food giant McDonald's announced that it wants its pork suppliers in the U.S. to phase out the use of sow gestation crates. They've asked all of the suppliers to outline plans for the switch by May.

McDonald's believes that gestation crates are "not a sustainable production system for the future," while HSUS adds that it's "wrong to immobilize animals for their whole lives in crates barely larger than their bodies." This announcement is the most recent success in the growing movement against factory farming, including commitments from Smithfield (a McDonald's supplier) and Hormel agreeing to phase out the crates that confine the smart, sensitive animals in spaces barely larger than their bodies.

The following is a guest blog from Jessica Schlueter who coordinates the Intermix campaign along with her friend Amy Rebecca.

Intermix considers itself to be on the cutting edge of the fashion industry. According to its Facebook page, it focuses on "the best mix of emerging and established designers and the most sought after trends." Because of this, it has embraced and profited from the heartbreaking resurgence of fur, which has regained popularity in the past couple years. Because many fashionistas revere Intermix as a source of inspiration, every piece of fur sold by this company not only creates demand for more animals to be brutally killed for their pelts, but also enforces the growing notion that fur is not only acceptable, but something to be coveted.

My partner Amy Rebecca (founder of Fur Free LA) and I want to put a stop to this. Since the launch of our Intermix: Please Go Fur Free! petition in October, we have hosted and coordinated numerous national protests, launched an online photo campaign, encouraged people to email, tweet, and call Intermix (as well as individuals and companies that support or work with them), and have yet to hear a single reply from Intermix's people. The company's refusal to engage us or cooperate with us in any way can only mean one thing: Intermix knows it has no defense.

Mercy For Animals revealed the findings of its latest undercover investigation today. The expose offers a rare look into a Butterball turkey facility in Shannon, North Carolina.

According to Dr. Temple Grandin, the world's leading expert on farmed animal welfare, the investigation documents "abuse and cruelty" to turkeys, and Mercy For Animals has video footage which seems to support such a bold claim. Workers were caught kicking and stomping on turkeys, dragging them by their wings and necks, and throwing birds onto the ground or into transport trucks in view of company management. You can learn more at ButterballAbuse.com.

If Ryan Gosling, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Deschanel, Alicia Silverstone, Maria Menounos, Kristin Bauer, Ed Begley, Jr., Wendie Malick, Bryan Adams and Steve-O all signed and sent you a letter, you'd probably read it very closely. Today, Jim Skinner, CEO of McDonald's, got just such a letter as part of the Mercy for Animals (MFA) campaign to pressure the company to step up and make a difference for chickens suffering for McMuffins and other foods at the restaurant chain.

When MFA broke a shocking undercover investigation into a McDonald's egg supplier last month, the news hit hard everywhere from television to local stores across the United States. Many consumers got their first glimpse into a factory farming system where animals are often crammed into cages so small they can hardly spread a wing for their entire lives. The video evidence of chicks left to suffocate in plastic bags and live hens being swung around by their legs was not only an education for people, but also a call to action to treat animals more kindly as a society.

The Cumberland County Animal Control Board in North Carolina recently weighed a proposal to ban adoptions of purebred, mixed-breed, or look-alikes of any American Staffordshire Terrier, Rottweiler, Chows, Presa Canario, or Pit Bull.

Hundreds of miles away in Iowa, Christine Salek heard about this proposal and knew she had to take action to put a sensible policy in place. She created her own petition at Change.org on a Friday and, by the following Monday, more than 60,000 animal advocates from around the world contacted officials in Cumberland County to demand that this proposal be dropped. Moreover, 100 dog defenders also filled the room at the Board's meeting to speak out against the  proposal, creating quite some buzz.