AR-News: (CA) Holy cow! Vegans like Burger King

[animalconcerns at fastmail.us]

[from The Globe and Mail]

Poor, beleaguered fast-food companies. Do they ever get any respect?
Books such as Fast Food Nation and the film Super Size Me have recently
offered scathing depictions of McDonald's, Wendy's and other giant
burger chains, blaming them for everything from low minimum-wage laws to
an international obesity epidemic. When the British government announced
this month that it was considering a "Big Mac sin tax" to fund anti-fat
initiatives, observers took it as one more sign that Big Food is
replacing Big Tobacco as corporate enemy No. 1.

But now Burger King -- second only to McDonald's in buns and patties
served -- has found enthusiastic supporters of an unlikely sort:
animal-rights activists.

Since Burger King launched a meat-free hamburger across North America,
vegans -- vegetarians who are so strict they also eschew eggs and dairy
products -- have been returning to burger culture with the same militant
zeal that once drove them to flee. In a strange irony, vegan websites
now donate free advertising to the chain, shower the company with awards
and record the praise of vegans who do cartwheels at the mere mention of
Burger King's name (albeit cartwheels of a delicate and careful sort, so
as not to accidentally harm any small creatures).

If "Burger King veganism" has an intellectual headquarters, it is
Vegan.com, an Internet news site that is the vegan equivalent of CNN.
The site's homepage features the chain's corporate logo -- amid links to
articles about mad-cow disease and ads for vegan cookbooks -- which
appears above the words, "Support it or lose it!" Four accompanying
articles and an eight-minute audio file urge vegans to head on down to
the home of the Whopper.

"When I found out that the BK Veggie was being established, I was pretty
excited," says Eric Marcus, the 37-year-old journalist and author who
operates Vegan.com from Ithaca, N.Y. Since 2002, Burger King has sold
its "meatless alternative" sandwich at all of its 8,000 stores in the
United States, a distinct contrast to rival chains such as McDonald's,
which offers its McVeggie Burger only at scattered U.S. outlets. (In
Canada, both chains provide veggie burgers nationwide.)

full story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040626/VEGAN26/TPComment/TopStories

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