SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Concerns have arisen about Dine’s approach to an ethically and materially important issue. Here’s the background:

In 2013, Dine pledged to eliminate gestation crates from its pork supply by 2020. These cages repeatedly lock pigs into restrictive solitary confinement for months or weeks on end, preventing them from even turning around.

Dine’s pledge made sense, given animal welfare’s ethical and material consequences. For example, Dine’s recent 10-Ks list animal welfare as one issue that can “have a material adverse effect on our business or financial condition.”

But despite touting its pledge for years, by 2020, Dine had yet to report any measurable progress; and now, it’s wordsmithed the commitment in a way that renders it essentially meaningless.

Dine now says it’s “committed to sourcing pork products for our domestic Applebee’s and IHOP restaurants from suppliers who utilize group housing systems.” Let’s examine that though.



1.
For years, Dine said it was eliminating gestation crates. But the new statement is about “group housing.” That’s a substantial difference, since some “group housing” moves pigs between being locked in gestation crates (for weeks at a time) and groups.



2.
Even putting that issue aside, Dine’s new statement doesn’t commit to using any actual group-housed pork: it’s to use suppliers with some group housing somewhere in their supply chains—even if not for the pork Dine buys.



3.
But this merely reflects an industry average. As a National Pork Producers Council spokesperson said in 2023, over 40% of domestic pork production now uses some kind of group housing.



4.
Lastly, the pledge isn’t even for Dine to source 100% of its pork from such suppliers—but just to use some unspecified amount from them.

Thus, the statement’s virtually meaningless: it’d be like pledging to buy some product from some vendors that offer both conventional and sustainable packaging, without pledging to actually buy the more sustainable options.

Meanwhile, gestation crates have been banned or restricted in eleven states (see CageFreeLaws.com). And other pork buyers exclusively use group-housed pork (or are on track to), including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Panera, Cheesecake Factory, Chipotle, Jack in the Box, Shake Shack, Aramark, Campbell’s, General Mills, and more.

In fact, McDonald’s has reached 91% group-housed pork in the U.S. and says it’ll reach 100% in 2024. Wendy’s already uses 100% in the U.S. And Jack in the Box has measurable targets for reaching 25% in 2024, 50% in 2025, and “all, or substantially all” group-housed pork in 2026.

But not Dine.

Despite still claiming its animal welfare approach “is rooted in the health and welfare of animals as well as accountability,” a decade after pledging to eliminate gestation crates, Dine no longer even has measurable targets on the topic. That should change.