Ronald Arrested!

Ronald McDonald has been arrested today after locking himself to the gates of McDonalds' South Auckland distribution centre. Activist Gareth Hughes from Wellington - or Ronald as we like to think of him - was led away and charged with disorderly conduct at the Papakura Police station later this morning.

Ronald was protesting at McDonalds' use of chicken fed in GE soya. After his resignation three weeks ago in Auckland seemingly fell on deaf ears, Ronald stated he was "totally fed-up with McDonalds lack of action," and insisted that McDonalds "Get off their golden arches and go GE free."

To show that he means business, this morning Ronald locked himself to the gates of McDonalds' Wiri distribution centre with a bicycle lock around his neck in protest at the fast food giants' use of GE fed chicken. He arrived at dawn with a small flock of Greenpeace activists clad as chickens. A 'voice bubble' was fixed alongside Ronald with the slogan "McDs chickens are fed up with GE... GO GE Free!"

McDonalds source their chicken from Inghams who import around 50,000 tonnes of GE contaminated soy feed each year. Greenpeace is campaigning for McDonalds New Zealand to follow its European counterpart and commit to using non-GE feed in their poultry products. McDonalds says it is considering the change but has so far failed to make any actual commitment to eliminating GE feed.

"It's a slightly tongue-in-cheek way of conveying a serious issue," said our GE campaigner in New Zealand Steve Abel. "GE soy feed is the biggest source of GE contamination in the New Zealand food chain and people don't want to eat GE fed chicken."

Protests began on 21 April at McDonalds Queen Street branch in Auckland where Ronald staged his resignation. Already over 4,000 postcards have been signed and over 1,300 electronic messages sent to McDonalds by the public urging the burger behemoth to make a change for good by shifting to non-GE fed animal products.

Take Action:

- Tell McDonalds to stop using GE soy fed chicken

- Get involved in our Trolley Watch: Click here to see how you can help.

- Check out what is happening in your country

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