Articles:

When API printed a story in our 1998 Bulletin #3 about the dangers posed by Yoplait yogurt containers to small mammals, we were both stunned and happily surprised when it caused an international media frenzy. Now, almost one year later, we are sitting at the table with General Mills (GM), maker of Yoplait yogurt, in an effort to find a mutually agreeable resolution to this problem.

Attracted to the smell of yogurt, skunks (and occasionally other small animals) are known to wedge their heads into Yoplait yogurt containers, becoming entrapped and completely helpless. Lacking the dexterity needed to extricate themselves from Yoplait’s unique tapered rim design, skunks can die of suffocation, dehydration, and trauma or fall victim to larger animals or cars. Since the tapered Yoplait yogurt cup hit the market more than twenty years ago, API has received numerous and continued calls and letters about this issue from animal control officers, wildlife rehabilitators, shelter workers and concerned citizens.

In the fall of 1997, API, joined by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), began actively gathering information and evidence about the Yoplait problem. The more research we did, the more we found that this problem was neither geographically isolated, nor a recent phenomenon. Evidence of skunks becoming entrapped in Yoplait containers was documented throughout the United States. In API’s home base state of California we have received dozens of reports from across the state. One dispatcher from a northern California animal shelter sent API a letter stating, “Each summer, July through September, I receive up to five calls per week about skunks with their heads trapped inside Yoplait yogurt containers. My efforts to get General Mills to address this issue over the past four years were basically fruitless until I contacted API.” During the summer of 1998 this animal control dispatcher called API on a weekly basis with reports and photographs of skunks caught in Yoplait containers, half of which were usually found dead by humane officers.

Donna Backus, a skunk rehabilitator in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, who for years tried to convince General Mills to make their Yoplait containers skunk-friendly, took matters into her own hands and conducted an informal survey of the 16 towns on the Cape. Her findings are revealing: 9 of the 16 towns reported that skunks had been found entrapped in Yoplait yogurt containers. Most of these animals were rescued and rehabilitated, but some were not so fortunate and died as a result. Donna was able to obtain photos of some of these unfortunate incidents, which she shared with General Mills and API.

We also discovered that wildlife entrapment in Yoplait containers doesn’t appear to be a problem in other countries where it is sold. The reason: other countries manufacture their own Yoplait containers and those that we have seen do not have the tapered, inward-curving rim design that is the fatal design flaw of the U.S. Yoplait cup.

With photographs, videotapes, letters and surveys documenting the pervasiveness of the Yoplait problem in the U.S., we went straight to the source and contacted General Mills. After no response to our numerous letters and calls, API turned to our members for help. We issued a national alert requesting that people contact General Mills and ask the company to re-design its yogurt container to make it more wildlife-friendly.

Reading about this issue in API’s Bulletin, San Jose Mercury News reporter Paul Rogers saw a story in the making. Rogers wrote a front-page feature, which hit the Knight-Ridder news wire. The next day API was deluged with calls from international media outlets. Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, The London Free Press, Le Monde, Scholastic magazine, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and numerous TV and radio stations brought the plight of skunks entrapped in Yoplait containers to the attention of yogurt eaters and wildlife-lovers worldwide.

Almost immediately, General Mills issued a news release stating the company had only been “informed of the problem 10 months ago by animal-rights activists.” API countered this untruth with a copy of a 15-year-old letter one of our members had received from GM in response to her numerous requests that the company re-design its deadly Yoplait container. In this letter GM wrote, “We note that you, like many others, would like the shape of the Yoplait Yogurt container changed so small animals will not get trapped in them. ... We are enclosing a return post card on which you may confirm your wishes. If you sign and return the card, you may be sure that your vote will be registered in favor of changing the shape of the Yoplait Yogurt container so small animals will not get trapped in them.” We also pulled out a January 16, 1994 article from the Cape Cod Times, wherein then-public relations manager for General Mills, Barry Wegener, said GM had received calls about this issue since “the company began to distribute the product.” Wegner is also quoted as saying that if GM received calls indicating animals were dying in Yoplait yogurt containers, “That would change our information base for making decisions about the packaging of the product ... We certainly would look at the information and reconsider our position.”

In response to the negative media coverage and flood of calls and letters, GM unveiled a “wildlife friendly” container redesign. API quickly pointed out that the redesign did not address the problem of the tapered top and inwardly curving lip that together, act as a locking-device against an animal’s fur. Instead, the redesign was confined to an almost illegible message on the underside of the container: “Protect Wildlife: Crush Before Disposal” and an added flange to the bottom of the cup which, according to GM, “provides a better grab point, enabling an animal to remove it using grooming behavior.” Had GM consulted a wildlife biologist before making this last modification, the company would have realized that skunks lack the dexterity necessary to remove objects from their heads.

As these superficial modifications clearly made little to no progress in solving the problem of wildlife entrapment, API continued to express our concerns to GM and increased our letter writing campaign, this time targeting Ian Friendly, President of GM’s Yoplait/Columbo division. To API’s surprise, Friendly responded, acknowledged that the redesign and placement of the message on the container was a dismal failure and suggested a meeting between GM, API and HSUS.

API and HSUS have since met with representatives from General Mills twice, bringing a team of experts, including a renowned skunk biologist, product design and plastics engineers, and a wildlife rehabilitator, in an effort to find a mutually agreeable solution to the problem of the established Yoplait design. Although General Mills has stated they have no immediate plans to alter the tapered shape of the container, claiming this design as their product image, the company has agreed to explore the possibility of changing the inward-curving lip (one of the most deadly aspects of the container) and to consider wildlife safety issues in the design and packaging their other products. In addition, GM has agreed to place the “Protect Wildlife: Crush Before Disposal” on the side of the container where it will be visible to consumers. API believes a major re-design of the Yoplait container is still necessary to eliminate wildlife entrapment. However, GM has promised to make some changes that, if carried out, will begin to address a problem that has gone on for far too long.

API will continue negotiations with General Mills on this issue and will keep our members informed as we monitor the company’s progress in making the Yoplait yogurt cup and other GM products more wildlife-friendly.