Write to Michael Foods

Please write to Michael Foods' CEO Gregg Ostrander and express your dismay at their imprisoning and neglect of hens for profit. An address and sample letter follow. You may also email your letters to Gregg Ostrander, CEO (gregg.ostrander@michaelfoods.com).

Sample letter

(printable version)

Gregg A. Ostrander
President and CEO Michael Foods, Inc.
5353 Wayzata Blvd., Suite 324
Minneapolis, MN 55416


Dear Gregg Ostrander,

I have just visited the BanBatteryCages.org website and I am outraged
by what the rescuers at Compassionate Action for Animals documented at
your facilities:  

- nearly featherless, filthy hens crammed into abrasive metal battery
  cages which have been outlawed in the European Union because of
  their inherent cruelty.

- hens with large, painful beak neuromas -- proof that your hens are
  debeaked, a practice which research has shown causes both short and
  long-term suffering.

- evidence that you starve your hens to induce molts -- a practice so
  detrimental to human and animal health Great Britain banned it in
  1987.

- neglected hens suffering with prolapsed oviducts, large bloody
  growths, infected eyes, breast blisters, and broken bones who are
  not provided any individualized veterinary care.

- a hen languishing a slow painful death as she lay in her own blood
  and vomit.

- piles of hens who have died from the stressful, disease-inducing
  conditions and neglect at your facilities.

- lies by Mark Witmer, Michael Foods Director of Corporate
  Communications, and Michael Foods Community Relations claiming the
  hens are happy and receive quality care.

Your treatment of hens is intolerable and I will have no part of it.
Ideally, I would like you to recognize the inherent value of all
animal life -- including hens -- and stop imprisoning, exploiting,
neglecting, and violently slaughtering these innocent animals for
their eggs and meat and your profits.  Instead, I encourage you to
stop factory farming and develop plant derived vegan alternatives to
the egg and egg products you currently sell.

I am disgusted by your callous disregard for animal life, and your
bold-faced lies to mislead the public.  From this day forward I will
join Compassionate Action for Animals' boycott of Michael Foods until
you agree to their following reasonable demands:

- immediately stop debeaking and force molting hens, and stock two hens
  per cage until you phase-out your use of battery cages.

- support legislation to ban debeaking, force molting, and battery
  cages in Minnesota and the United States.

- and because you also buy eggs from outside sources, develop a plan
  with the help of CAA to stop purchasing eggs from producers who use
  battery cages, forced molts, and debeaking.

I am confident we will soon see the end of battery cages, forced
molting, and debeaking in the United States.  The question for you is:
do you want to be the forward-thinking leaders or casualties of this
evolution in human thinking.  The choice is yours to decide.  The
consequences are yours to reap.  I urge you to make the compassionate,
dignified, and responsible decision.

Sincerely,