Advocates face hostility at Denny’s headquarters: 53,000 voices for animals ignored

Spartanburg, SC – Today, global animal protection organization Animal Equality is in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to campaign against restaurant giant Denny’s. Representatives from the organization traveled from around the country to rally in front of Denny’s headquarters in downtown Spartanburg. 

The advocates attempted to deliver a message inside the headquarters, but they were met with an aggressive response from a Denny’s employee. The staff member refused to accept a hand-delivered box from peaceful advocates with Animal Equality. The box contained a letter representing 53,000 messages from concerned consumers regarding the company’s lack of protections for pigs in its supply chain. 

Upon entering the building, the hostile employee was already on a call, seemingly with law enforcement. He would not let the demonstrators speak with anyone else and demanded for them to leave. When asked if he would accept the thousands of messages from concerned customers, he refused.

“Unfortunately, after eleven months of campaigning, thousands of messages from concerned consumers and citizens, [and] dozens of companies moving away from gestation crates, we have been aggressively asked to leave Denny’s headquarters,” Animal Equality’s President Sharon Núñez shares with members of the press after being turned away. “We are nothing more than peaceful protestors who want to end cruelty towards animals.”

This demonstration is part of a nationwide campaign urging Denny’s to follow through on its public commitment to end the use of so-called “gestation crates” in its supply chain. The company released a public commitment in 2012, stating its promise to end the controversial practice of confining pregnant pigs. Denny’s told its customers it was on track for the past ten years but has recently removed the policy from its website entirely. 

The failed commitment caused nationwide outrage, with around a dozen protests in major cities and 53,000+ messages sent by consumers. The only “response” they received was a middle finger given by the son of Denny’s executive during a recent protest in Kansas City.

Animal Equality will be in Spartanburg until Wednesday morning. They will carry out other peaceful protests around town, including one in front of Denny’s on Reidville Road today, December 11th, at 5 PM Eastern. A mobile billboard displaying a pig in a gestation crate has been driving around the city for a week, while a static billboard has appeared above Spartanburg’s only Denny’s restaurant. 

ABOUT ANIMAL EQUALITY:

Animal Equality is an international organization working with society, governments, and companies to end cruelty to farmed animals. Animal Equality works effectively for animals through investigations, corporate campaigns and legal advocacy in the United States, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and India.