CHICAGO – The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced a new campaign aimed at convincing McDonald’s Corp. to end what the organization calls “extreme animal suffering” in the company’s supply chain for chicken.

The Unhappy Meals campaign includes television commercials and a website, UnhappyMeals.com, that depicts what HSUS says are “…the conditions of factory-farmed chickens…”

“Dozens of other major food companies have pledged to overhaul the way chickens are bred and raised for their products,” HSUS said in a statement. “But McDonald’s has chosen to make vague public relations statements about animal welfare instead.

“For example, while these other companies have announced concise, meaningful, time-bound commitments to eliminate the worst abuses chickens suffer as a result of the way they’re bred, McDonald’s has said that it will ‘study’ the issue,” HSUS said. “And while these other companies have announced very clear mandates in terms of providing more space, environmental enrichments, improved air quality and better lighting conditions, McDonald’s statements around these issues remain imprecise and noncommittal and any of the standards the company has set fall far short of being meaningful.”

In October 2017, McDonald’s announced new commitments to advance the welfare of chickens the company sources for its food products. The company said it would commit to sourcing chickens with improved welfare outcomes — such as on-farm health and welfare monitoring and the use of controlled atmospheric stunning — with full implementation on or before 2024. The company said the commitments apply to chicken raised for sale at McDonald’s restaurants in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.