AMENDED 10/03/95
"What's wrong with McDonald's?"
containing the following words defamatory of the Plaintiffs:
"What's wrong with McDonald's? Everything they don't
want you to know.
McDollars McGreedy McCancer McMurder McDisease Mcprofits McDeadly McHunger McRip-off McTorture Mcwasteful McGarbage
- A.Have, by purchasing large tracts of land in poor countries, caused the eviction of small farmers that lived there growing food for their own people and as a result are to blame for starvation in the Third World.
- B.Are guilty of the destruction of rainforests, thereby causing wanton damage to the environment.
- C.Use and have used lethal poisons to destroy vast areas of Central American rainforest to create grazing pastures for cattle to be sent to the United States as burgers and pet foods and to provide fast-food packaging materials.
- D. Are lying when they claim to use re-cycled paper.
- E.Are, through their said conduct, contributing to a major ecological catastrophe, forcing the tribal people in the rainforests off their ancestral territories where they have lived peacefully, for thousands of years, without damaging their environment.
AMENDED 10/03/95:
- F. Are deliberately misleading the public as to the nutritional value of the food they sell when they know full well that the contents of an average McDonald's meal are linked with cancers of the breast and bowel, and heart disease.
- F. Sell meals which cause cancer of the breast and bowel and heart disease in their customers.
Despite knowing that that is an accepted medical fact, deliberately and dishonestly conceal that fact from the public by publishing nutritional guiides which
- (a) suppress that fact; and
- (b) falsely claim that their meals are a useful and
- nutritious part of any diet.
- G. Sell synthetic chips, and food which is so lacking in bulk that it is hardly possible to chew it.
- H. Sell food which is so high in sugar and sodium content that people develop an addiction for it, thereby allowing the Plaintiffs to earn greater profits for themselves notwithstanding that it causes constipation, clogged arteries and heart attacks for many people.
- I. Use gimmicks in their restaurants to cover up for the fact that the food is of low quality and in order to ensure that it looks the same throughout the world requires it to be treated with numerous chemicals.
- J. Nearly always use advertisements whose object is to trap children into thinking they are not normal if they do not go to McDonald's and who accordingly, as the Plaintiffs intend, pressurise their parents into taking them there.
- K. Promote the consumption of meals at McDonald's as a fun event when they knew full well that the contents could poison the children who eat them.
- L.Are responsible for the inhumane torture and murder of cattle, chickens and pigs.
AMENDED 10/03/95:
- Are utterly indifferent to the welfare of the animals which are used to produce their food ('the animals'), with the results (for which the Plaintiffs are to be held repsonsible) that:
- the animals, especially chickens and pigs, spend their whole lives without access to air and sunshine and without any freedom of movement; and
- the animals (chickens,pigs and cattle) are slaughtered by methods which are grossly inhumane, in that:
- the animals waiting to be slaughtered often struggle to escape;
- cattle waiting to be slaughtered become frantic as they approach as they watch the animal before them in the killing-line being prodded, beaten, electrocuted and knifed; and
- the methods used to stun the animals are so inefficient that the animals are frequently still fully concious when they have their throats cut.
- M. Sell hamburgers which are very likely to cause food poisoning.
- N. Pay bad wages and provide bad working conditions, taking advantage of the absence of the existence of any specific union for their woWrkers and adopting a policy of preventing unionisation by getting rid of pro-union workers.
- 0. Have taken advantage of the absence of a minimum wage in Britain to pay what they like, helping thereby to depress wages in the catering trade.
- P. Are only interested in recruiting cheap labour, and to this end exploit disadvantaged groups, women and black people especially.
3/5/91
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION BETWEEN:
If not, specify which Defendants were members of the said organisation on which specified dates and which Defendants were involved in the activities of the organisation on which specified dates.ANSWER
In relation to the Fourth Defendant (Morris) the Plaintiffs will rely upon the following particulars:
ANSWER
Similarly, at the Anti-McDonald's Fayre held on 21st October 1991 a number of the said leaflets were piled on the Greenpeace (London) stall for distribution and the Plaintiffs are unable to state how many were picked up or handed to members of the public.
In relation to the meetings referred to in the answer to request number 18 above, it is the Plaintiffs' case that several hundred leaflets were made available in piles for collection by persons attending the meetings and more than about 25 would have been handed out or collected at each of these meetings. Under Paragraph 5 Of By virtue of the said publication the Plaintiffs have been greatly damaged in their trading reputation, goodwill and credit"
THOMAS SHIELDS SERVED this day of May 1991 by
BARLOW LYDE & GILBERT
Beaufort House
15 St. Botolph Street
London
EC3A 7NJ.
Solicitors for the Plaintiffs