McDonald's accused of causing starvation
March 3rd, 2008
Discarded lids from the McDonald’s McFlurry dessert sold in Germany have been implicated in the tragic deaths of many German Hedgehogs. According to Der Spiegel, the size of the opening on the lids was just large enough to allow the Hedgehog to push its head through and become perilously trapped. Pressure from Germany’s environmental lobby has succeeded in effecting a redesign of the deathly lids.
Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), the nation’s largest environmental group, says that it has received reports of between 50 and 100 cases of hedgehogs getting trapped in McFlurry packaging during the last two years alone. The group then lobbied McDonald’s to develop a hedgehog-safe lid.
But McDonald’s has a conundrum on their hands. You see, the McFlurry hole has to be big enough for a spoon, yet just small enough to prevent the Hedgehog from entering. At one point, even a doggy-door like flap was considered—in the end, a more traditional design won out.
The new lids debut was just a few weeks ago with plans for nation wide use by the end of next month. With Hedgehog season on its way, the timing couldn’t be better.
This whole story is like some strange hybrid of a Sherlock Holmes novel and a pamphlet from PETA: mysterious deaths caused by starvation, the Autobahn, German Hedgehogs, the McFlurry. The full article, published on Der Spiegel, is here. It’s good for at least one hearty make-PETA-people-writhe laugh.
Not that I don’t care tremendously about the German Hedgehog, but this typifies the modern mindset—we’re always trying to solve a problem without addressing the fundamental cause. In this particular case, the real problem—the German’s penchant for littering—has been mistaken for the McFlurry lid. Even if McDonald’s changes the McFlurry lid design, they will fail to solve the root problem, and we’ll start finding some other animal, um, like the Stuttgart Red-Breasted swallow, emaciated in discarded Styrofoam cups.
The Modern Human tries to fix things like poverty or crime by handing out checks when the real problem is a broken family, a corroding morality, or a general lack of ethics. (At least one ex-presidential candidate knew this.) Times like these, I am reminded of the old adage, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a life time.” But can we really expect McDonald’s to understand this?
March 13th, 2008 at 10:39 AM In the beginning of the article I was wondering what your point was going to be. I thought it was odd that you were posting an article about hedgehogs on your site. But it totally makes sense. Our government and others of the world seem to try to cure only symptoms of the problem. Like in california, the solution to almost everything is seems is to raise taxes on middle income people who can barely afford to make it as it is..instead of addressing why we are having so many economic problems. (and here is a hint-It isnt because the working class people do not pay enough taxes!)