Mickey Mouse Promotes Unhealthy Meat Products and Animal Suffering
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Animal Friends Croatia
September 2008

Animal Friends Croatia have launched a campaign with an aim of ending the cooperation between Disney and PIK Vrbovec, since it is unacceptable that Disney’s cartoon character Mickey Mouse should advertise meat pâtés, hot dogs, sausages, and hamburgers, which are unhealthy for children and a result of terrible suffering of animals in intense farm breeding.

Animal Friends Croatia demands that Disney corporation should withdraw the license for using the Mickey Mouse character as soon as possible, thus ending their cooperation with PIK Vrbovec in deluding children. Moreover, they should break up all connections with unhealthy meat products and with the suffering of pigs and cows in intense farm breeding.

By maintaining its cooperation with PIK Vrbovec, Disney is supporting damages incurred to ecology, violence inflicted upon the children of pigs and cows, and false propaganda inflicted upon human children. As they watch their favorite character smiling at them from the packages of meat products, children fall victim to a delusion as to the cruel realities behind the walls of modern farms and slaughterhouses, as well as concerning their own nutrition. At the same time, this sly propaganda puts their parents into a difficult position while they are trying to educate their children properly on this matter.

In the way it conducts its business, Disney should be observing a high ethical code, which condemns rather than ratifies any form of manipulation for the sake of gaining profit, especially if it concerns manipulating children. 'We think that it is shameful that Disney should have allowed itself to become involved in the promotion of products that are a very bad choice as nutrition for children and moreover a result of cruelty against animals,' as Luka Oman, president of Animal Friends Croatia, has stated.

Disney should take better care of its reputation and break up all cooperation with PIK Vrbovec for the same reasons for which it did with McDonald’s. The situation is even worse in this case, since parents can perhaps manage to avoid fast-food restaurants, but they can barely prevent their children from noticing Mickey Mouse smiling at them from packages with meat pâtés, hot dogs, sausages, and hamburgers in almost every food store.

Using Disney characters on ready meat products is inappropriate and harmful for children, animals, and the reputation of Disney corporation. Therefore, Animal Friends Croatia hope that it will soon break up all cooperation with PIK Vrbovec, just as it did in the case of McDonald's.

In a letter addressed to Disney, Animal Friends Croatia asked whether Mickey Mouse is ready to take the children around PIK’s farms and slaughterhouses, the source of cow’s meat and pig’s liver and fat, which, with the addition of various preservatives, antioxidants, and taste enhancers, turn up in food stores packed in plastic with Disney’s logo, or else Disney will take better care in the future whom they will allow to use the influence of their characters and with what purpose.

We have attached photographs from PIK’s pig farm in Gradec and from a Croatian slaughterhouse.

Many citizens of Croatia have likewise noticed the inappropriateness of using Disney characters on PIK products and expressed their hope that Disney will react immediately and withdraw its license to PIK for using the Mickey Mouse character in order to influence children for the sake of corporate gains.

For more information about animal rights activism in Croatia, visit their site.

---

Return to Animal Rights Articles