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Dear Weekly Alibi, As the original Ronald McDonald, I'm glad PETA is taking the Golden Arches to task [Editorial, Sept. 23-29]. It's high time that someone pointed out that McDonald's, for all its money and influence, doesn't do a thing to help improve the miserable lives of the animals raised for its burgers and nuggets. For years now I've considered my stint as Ronald McDonald to be the nutritional equivalent of the Marlboro Man: hawking products that put people in intensive care with fatal diseases like cancer, heart disease, and stroke. As Ronald McDonald, I actually told children that hamburgers grow in vegetable patches, instead of letting them know the truth -- that animals are crowded into tiny cages where they can barely turn around, subjected to painful procedures like debeaking and castration without anesthesia, and get a brief glimpse of daylight only when they are being trucked to their deaths. I deeply regret ever letting McDonald's use me to encourage kids to eat animals; I'm proud to say that today I'm a vegetarian doing everything I can to urge McDonald's to stop turning a blind eye to animal suffering.
Sincerely, |
