Pru Elliott
Keith Kenny is McDonald's Vice President, Sustainability. He has been working for McDonald's for nearly 30 years.
Keith Kenny is McDonald's Vice President, Sustainability. He has been working for McDonald's for nearly 30 years.
As part of this role, he is responsible for ensuring products are responsibly sourced, and that the company's policies and business practices align in order to have a "positive impact on society."
McDonald's is one of the largest food companies in the whole world, so Keith Kenny holds a great deal of power. It has gone great lengths to appear ethical in recent years, using only free-range eggs and organic milk, and phasing out the use of plastic straws in the UK.
But does Keith Kenny care about chickens reared for meat?
We know—or hope— that Mr Kenny will already understand the basic welfare needs of chickens. After 30 years in the field, it would be hard not to.
But this year, as students return to school and universities welcome their new influx of eager-to-learn minds, we thought it would be a good time for Kenny himself to do some learning. So, we enrolled him onto a 6-week online animal welfare course.
At the end of this course, Keith Kenny will have learnt about the single biggest factor contributing to the immense suffering of chickens: supersized chickens who grow so big, so fast, their bodies can't keep up.
Enrolling him on this course is about making a point: any rational person who knows how much chickens are suffering in McDonald's supply chains would take steps to end that suffering.
Here's hoping he will succeed in his studies.
