Domino's Shareholders Reject Call to Address Gestation Stalls

Domino’s Pizza shareholders Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a request to study ending the use of pork from suppliers who confine pregnant pigs in crates, according to www.AnnArbor.com.

Some fast-food companies, including Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's have pledged to phase out the use of pork from such suppliers.

Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre says the vote was 80% against the resolution backed by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and 4% voted in favor. The holders of the remaining 16% of shares abstained, McIntyre says.

The HSUS resolution called for the company to prepare a report on the feasibility of ensuring that its pepperoni and ham come from producers that don’t use gestation stalls to confine bred sows.

Shareholders at the Ann Arbor, MI-based company voted in accordance with a recommendation from the company’s board of directors, which in a response to the resolution, said the issue should be addressed with pork producers and suppliers, not customers. The company also noted that it had provided similar information to that requested in the resolution in answer to a question at last year's shareholder meeting.

McIntyre says Domino’s is monitoring the issue. “We are paying attention to what McDonald's and Burger King are doing and this is not a company that is holding its collective hand to its ears or to its eyes,” he says.

The company’s proxy statement notes that its pork suppliers use animals from farms “that use a variety of animal management systems, including from farms that do not use gestation stalls.” It also says the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians have published statements indicating there are advantages and disadvantages to both cage-free and caged pork production methods.

“We rely on animal experts to determine what is the best way to raise an animal that’s being used for food,” McIntyre says.

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