Columbus’ White Castle And Wendy’s Beat Out Competitors In Peta’s National Ranking Of Burger Joints

Ohio Eatery Earns Top Score, While Hometown Rival Wendy’s Earns a “‘B'”

For Immediate Release:
September 19, 2016

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

The demand for healthy and humane plant-based meals—including the ever-popular veggie burger—continues to skyrocket. Now, PETA has released letter grades for burger joints across the country, noting which spots offer delicious vegan entrées and which need to play ketchup—and two Columbus-based chains scored high on the list.

White Castle rocked the rankings with an “A” grade for its hit Veggie Sliders— served on a vegan bun with tasty Sweet Thai sauce—while hometown rival Wendy’s nabbed a “B” for piloting a black bean burger in a few locations.

“The vegan-friendly options at White Castle and Wendy’s prove that no animals need to be harmed to make a crowd-pleasing burger,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges competitors who fell short, including Burger King and McDonald’s, to step up their game and start satisfying the nation’s hunger for healthy, cruelty-free cuisine.”

Research from the National Restaurant Association confirms that plant-based meals are vital to an eatery’s success. In its What’s Hot 2016 Culinary Forecast, vegan entrées placed among the top 10 in the “Main Dishes” category and were said to be a “hot trend” or “perennial favorite” among 76 percent of professional chefs surveyed.

Other standouts on PETA’s list are Johnny Rockets and Red Robin, which each earned an “A” for offering vegan burgers at all locations. Three restaurants earned an “F-” for not offering a single animal-friendly entrée: Checkers, Rally’s, and McDonald’s.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that cows raised for food are crammed together by the thousands in feces-filled lots. These sensitive, gentle animals are castrated and branded, often without pain relief. After being transported to slaughter in all weather extremes, they’re strung up by one leg and their throats are slit, sometimes while they’re still conscious.

In addition, cheap hamburger meat often comes from female cows on dairy farms, who are continually impregnated so that they’ll produce a steady supply of milk and whose calves are repeatedly torn away from them within days of birth. Once they’re no longer considered useful for milk production, mother cows are slaughtered for meat.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.