The Mellon Foundation should promptly divest from Roark Capital Group, a private equity company that profits from horrific animal cruelty. Roark Capital Group has failed to ensure that all the restaurant companies it invests in have publicly committed to comprehensive animal welfare policies. As a Roark Capital Group investor, the Mellon Foundation likely profits from horrific animal cruelty.

Some of Roark Capital Group’s portfolio companies allow suppliers to breed chickens to grow so unnaturally fast that they often collapse under their own weight. Many suffer from constant leg pain so severe they spend nearly all their time sitting in their own waste. Continual contact with wet litter causes extreme feather loss and painful sores on the chickens’ bodies and feet. The noxious air, filled with the stench of waste and acrid ammonia, makes breathing difficult.

To prevent chickens from walking around and burning calories, many farmers keep them in near darkness all day long. Most birds will not see the sun until the day they are killed. Many die from organ failure. And the lives of those who do survive these houses of horrors end the same way: The birds are shackled upside down by their feet and painfully shocked with electricity, have their throats cut open, and are often scalded to death in hot water while they are still conscious and able to feel pain.

Numerous companies have publicly committed to policies that prevent these horrors, including Burger King, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Subway, Boston Market, Qdoba, Chipotle, Panera Bread, Pret A Manger, Starbucks, Aramark, Bon Appétit Management Company, Compass Group, Sodexo, Centerplate, and Delaware North.

Please sign this petition calling on the Mellon Foundation to take a stand against these abuses by divesting from Roark Capital Group until Roark agrees to ensure that all its portfolio companies adopt comprehensive animal welfare policies to prevent horrific cruelty.