Activists block McDonald’s supply sites

LONDON — Animal-welfare protesters are blockading four McDonald’s distribution centers in the U.K. in an attempt to get the burger chain to commit to becoming fully plant-based by 2025.

Animal Rebellion said Saturday that trucks and bamboo structures are being used at the distribution sites in Hemel Hempstead, Basingstoke, Coventry and Heywood, Greater Manchester, to stop trucks from leaving the depots.

The group said it intends to remain at the sites for at least 24 hours, causing “significant disruption” to the McDonald’s supply chain, adding that the move will affect some 1,300 restaurants.

“The meat and dairy industry is destroying our planet: causing huge amounts of rain forest deforestation, emitting immense quantities of greenhouse gases and killing billions of animals each year,” said James Ozden, a spokesman for the group.

A McDonald’s spokesperson said the company was assessing the impact of “the disruption” on its restaurants.

(AP/PA/Yui Mok) An animal rights protester sits suspended from a bamboo structure Saturday outside a McDonald’s distribution site in Hemel Hempstead, England.