Slaughtered ‘Chickens’ Displayed To Protest Kfc Cruelty

For Immediate Release:
22 September 2003

Contact:
Sean Gifford 020 7357 9229, ext 226

Scunthorpe – Holding signs that read, ‘KFC Hangs Chickens Out to Dry’, and accompanied by a ‘butcher’, who will slit the throats of strung-up ‘chickens’, members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will gather outside a local KFC restaurant to protest the abusive treatment of birds by KFC suppliers. The protest comes on the heels of a Sunday Mirror exposé of cruel conditions at Scunthorpe-based Premier Foods, which is a KFC supplier.

Date: Tuesday, 23 September
Time: 12 noon-1 p.m.
Place: KFC, 7 Pavilion Row, at Doncaster Road in Scunthorpe

PETA launched an international campaign against KFC in January after nearly two years of failed negotiations with the fast-food chain’s parent corporation, Yum! Brands. Despite assurances made long ago by Senior Vice President Jonathan Blum that KFC would ‘raise the bar’ on animal welfare, the company refuses to eliminate the worst abuses. The campaign follows victories over McDonald’s and Burger King – both of which bowed to PETA pressure to reduce cruel treatment of animals raised and slaughtered for food. Earlier this year, PETA successfully sued in the US to force KFC and Yum! Brands to remove false statements from their Web sites and from customer-service information relating to their animal-welfare claims.

Among the improvements that PETA wants KFC to implement are the following: replacing crude and ineffective electric stunning and throat-slitting with gas killing; phasing out the forced rapid growth of chickens, which causes metabolic disorders and lameness; adding minimal enhancements, such as sheltered areas and perches, and implementing automated chicken-catching, a process that reduces the high incidence of bruising, broken bones and stress associated with catching the birds by hand. Jason Alexander, Seinfeld star and ex-KFC pitchman, had his contract with KFC cancelled after PETA enlisted him to speak to company execs about the suffering of chickens.

‘KFC stands for cruelty in our book’, says PETA Europe Director of European Campaigns Sean Gifford. ‘McDonald’s and Burger King responded to consumer pressure, and KFC would do well to follow their lead.’

For more information, please visit KFCCruelty.co.uk.