OAKVILLE, Ontario – After working with international animal welfare organizations including Los Angeles-based Mercy For Animals, Burger King and Tim Horton’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), have 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. 

In a statement to MEAT+POULTRY, Mercy For Animals said, “We are encouraged to see this commitment now being realized into Latin America.

“RBI’s decision will spare hundreds of thousands of chickens and pigs a lifetime of immense suffering.”

Brent Cox, vice president of Corporate Outreach at Mercy For Animals went on to say, “RBI has taken an enormous step forward to improve the lives of farmed animals. This policy will reduce the suffering of hundreds of thousands of animals and inspire other companies to do the same. We look forward to the fact that RBI has now set the bar for other Latin American companies to meet.”