Waffle House Egg Upcharge to Prompt PETA Billboard Downtown: ‘Hens Pay the Highest Price’

For Immediate Release:
February 6, 2025

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

Following complaints that Waffle House is adding a 50-cent surcharge per egg due to the ongoing national shortage, PETA plans to place a sky-high message in Atlanta near the chain’s headquarters to remind everyone that it’s actually hens in the egg industry who pay the highest price—their lives—and to urge everyone to try vegan eggs instead as they are now widely available.

PETA’s message—which will come home to roost in the city with more Waffle House locations than anywhere else in the country—will appear as a bird flu outbreak continues to spread across the U.S., infecting dozens of people over the last year alone, resulting in one human death so far, and the slaughter of over 19 million chickens in 2025.

“Cramming birds by the tens of thousands into filthy factory farm sheds that serve as disease incubators before hauling them to slaughter is both cruel and dangerous,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Vegan eggs are pandemic-proof, and PETA encourages everyone to choose them and leave the birds in peace.”

Chickens form complex social structures, dream when they sleep, and worry about the future, just as humans do. But hens used for egg production are crammed together inside filthy, wire-floored cages where they don’t even have enough room to spread their wings. Once their egg production drops, they’re sent to slaughterhouses, where mechanized blades slit their throats—often while they’re still conscious—and many are scalded to death in de-feathering tanks.

PETA points out that breeding and raising animals for food creates hotspots for potentially deadly zoonotic diseases, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in humans are transmitted due to contact with animals, primarily those used in animal agriculture. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help anyone thinking of making the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.