For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007

Contacts: Mercy For Animals 866-MFA-Ohio

KROGER SHAREHOLDERS FACE GRAPHIC PROTEST OVER CRUEL TREATMENT OF FARM ANIMALS

Group Says Grocery Giant Tortures Animals - Urges Shareholders to Adopt Meaningful Welfare Standards

Cincinnati, OH — Waving signs that declare “Kroger Tortures Animals,” and depicting startling images of egg-laying hens crammed in tiny wire cages, mother pigs locked in narrow stalls, and a bloody chicken, members of the animal advocacy organization Mercy For Animals (MFA) will confront Kroger executives outside their annual shareholders meeting Thursday morning. Before entering the meeting, shareholders of the grocery giant will first have to pass an activist wearing an electronic “body screen” TV airing shocking undercover footage revealing the abusive conditions cows, pigs, and chickens are subjected to by Kroger meat suppliers.

Date: Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Time: 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Location: Main entrance of The Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202

Unlike other food providers, such as Burger King, Kroger executives have failed to implement any meaningful welfare standards for the animals raised and killed for its stores. Though Kroger claims to care about animal issues, and states it follows industry standards, suppliers for the chain continue to subject millions of animals to shocking cruelty on factory farms and inside slaughterhouses.

Kroger sells eggs from hens confined in tiny wire cages where each bird is given less living space than a piece of paper - too small for them to walk or even stretch a single wing. Many hens have their beaks painfully cut off with a hot blade to prevent them from pecking their cagemates - a behavior induced by stress. Pork sold at Kroger comes from factory farms were mother sows spend most of their lives locked in narrow “gestation crates,” too small for them to turn around or lie down comfortably. Many of these intelligent and sentient animals go insane under such conditions and many others suffer open wounds and sores. Piglets are taken from their mothers shortly after birth to have their ears cut, their teeth ripped out, and be castrated without any painkillers. Chicken and turkey meat sold at Kroger come from birds bred to grow so large that many suffer crippling leg deformities before having their throats slit, often while fully conscious.

"Kroger has failed consumers of conscience by refusing to pledge to improve the wretched plight of animals raised and killed for its shelves and freezer cases,” says MFA’s Executive Director Nathan Runkle. “If Kroger executives confined, mutilated, and slaughtered dogs or cats in the horrific manner their suppliers abuse cows, pigs, and chickens, they could be prosecuted on grounds of cruelty to animals."