One hen at a time, Thai campaigners target animal suffering

Wichayapat Piromsan of Sinergia Animal presents information on factory farming practices. Photo: Coconuts
Wichayapat Piromsan of Sinergia Animal presents information on factory farming practices. Photo: Coconuts

Thai animal protection campaigners have notched another win in their belts on word that Burger King will transition to cage-free eggs.

Burger King became the latest multinational to extend promises and reforms made elsewhere to the kingdom, in part at the urging of Thai campaigners who have made it their mission to motivate – and sometimes embarrass – them into doing so.

“The commitment from one of the world’s biggest fast-food chains like Burger King has the potential to reduce the suffering of millions of hens in Thailand, and we hope that many companies in the Asia Pacific region will follow suit,” said Sinergia Animal’s Wichayapat Piromsan.

That commitment means Burger King will stop using eggs from caged hens within seven years at all of its current and future Thai restaurants, which are owned by Minor International.

Winning those promises from restaurants and sellers are key to Sinergia Animal’s ultimate goal of reducing needless animal suffering worldwide. Sinergia was founded three years ago in Brazil and is focused on the southern hemisphere, where such issues have had fewer champions. Wichayapat opened its shoestring operation in Thailand last year.

She is among a new generation of Thai activists taking leading roles in fronting causes underrepresented in the past.

Photo: Ralph Capri
Photo: Ralph Capri

Prior to operating Sinergia, Wichayapat was an activist and campaigner in the growing animal-rights movement that’s expanded beyond concerns of overt abuse to the welfare of animals across the board – and in the supply chain.

In the past, causes such as animal welfare or the environment more readily drew Westerners to events in Thailand. Scenes of street action led by foreigners have invited criticism and the perception that Thais are somehow less interested, concerned or motivated. That social activism outside of politics is a foreign import.

Asked about that perception, Wichayapat bristled.

“They don’t own it,” she said in an earlier interview. She said it’s about awareness and education as much as direct campaigning.

That’s meant things like making noise on social media through a vegan diet challenge and partnering with young sustainability influencers such as Nanticha “Lynn” Ocharoenchai of Climate Strike Thailand and anti-plastics crusader Ralyn “Lilly” Satidtanasarn to raise public awareness about the harm caused by commercial fishing.

Wichayapat attended the University of Pennsylvania as a Fulbright scholar but says her activism ignited at a young age.

“If I had to pinpoint some moment in my life, it was watching the movie Babe,” she said. “At that time I was sitting in front of the television and eating pork satay and, already at that age, I realized how this is hypocrisy. I felt uncomfortable when my sister pointed out that [I loved] the pig on the television while eating it at the same time.”

Sinergia Animal’s main focus has been pressuring Thai firms to go cage-free. To do that, they pressure multinational companies that introduce reforms in Western markets but fail to apply them worldwide, where there may be less consumer demand.

It was a big deal last year when Subway said it would go cage-free throughout Asia, including China. But it came four years after the company made the same promise to North America. In September, Tesco extended its three-year-old pledge to do the same to Southeast Asia.

That’s where Sinergia has concentrated its efforts by calling attention to those lapses and pushing for them to make such policies universal. The logic is: If it’s good for California, why isn’t it good for Thailand?

Eggs are big business. Though it hasn’t cracked the top 10, Thai egg consumption is higher than most other nations. In 2014, the government launched a campaign imploring the public to eat 300 eggs per year and crowed when it hit 240. Thai consumers on average ate 12.4 kilograms of eggs in 2017.

In addition to Burger King, Sinergia has also taken some credit for a similar commitment from Tesco Lotus, and fast food behemoth Subway’s October decision to extend its 2025 cage-free commitment to Thailand as well as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea. It’s gotten nearly 20,000 to sign a petition for McDonald’s to do the same without success. It tracks those commitments on its website.

While five- to seven-year promises may seem hollow, they do involve expensive realignments.

Getting Thailand’s massive agricorps to change their ways – at considerable cost – presents something of a, well, chicken and egg problem. Do you target those producing or eating them?

Instead of going after the likes of Charoen Pokphand, which holds a near-monopoly on egg production, it makes more sense to do things from the demand side. Thus Sinergia hopes demands from woke consumers will trickle up through restaurants (many also CP owned) to the corporate farms.

It’s a proven approach. In August, CP Foods completed its first cage-free egg production facility, which it said was driven by consumer demand.

And the push comes as a broader shift is seeing more vegan and vegetarian restaurants sprout up in Bangkok, while legacy chains introduce non-meat options to meet new dietary demands.

“Now people somehow associate being vegan with Western culture or foreign brands of vegan burgers,” Theerathorn Klomklao, who runs Sinergia’s ongoing vegan challenge, said in a statement. “But much of Thai culture is essentially plant-based.”

Related
Sizzler Thailand now has plant-based steaks, burgers and chili dogs on its menu

Vistro Bangkok: New vegan fusion bistro with great plant-based dishes, desserts and homemade kombucha
Feel like an egg? Why not put an egg on it? Campaign urges Thais to eat 300 eggs a year

To sell more eggs, agribusiness wins govt support for ‘World Egg Day’

You can’t possibly be prepared for WORLD MILK DAY



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on