“Hello, do you want a mystery burger? “. Many passers-by in front of the Burger King in Montparnasse in the 14th arrondissement of Paris were trapped by the “Burger Vérité” operation led by the association for the defense of animals L214. Volunteers are dressed as Burger King employees and hand out boxes to passers-by that look just like the fast-food chain’s famous “Mystery Burgers” campaign.
“We are here to denounce the conditions of raising and slaughtering chickens used for Burger King burgers and nuggets,” explains Hugo, campaign manager for L214. Inside the boxes, we will not find a burger but a visual and a QR code referring to a video denouncing the reality of the farms of the fast-food chain. “We saw a lot of reports on the subject but this is different, to see them in real life,” says Alexandra after watching the video. “It makes you think about fast foods in general,” she continues.
Following this operation, Burger King reacted in a press release: “Within 5 years, our ambition is to achieve chicken that is 100% from farms that meet at least stringent criteria similar to those of” Nature d’Éleveurs”, a sustainable breeding approach that reconciles animal well-being and animal health”.
A response deemed insufficient for the L214 association : “Nature d’Éleveurs is a cheap approach that ignores essential points to fight against the worst of intensive farming. We ask Burger King to make a firm commitment to respect the European Chicken Commitment, whose criteria have been established by some thirty associations in Europe. This request is realistic, achievable and above all a bare minimum to turn our backs on the worst of intensive chicken farming”. Several fast-food chains have already committed to respecting it, such as KFC, Subway and Domino’s Pizza.