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Animal experts quit KFC over confidentiality pact

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Animal experts quit KFC over confidentiality pact

 

By Nichola Groom Thu May 5, 4:09 PM ET

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two animal welfare experts

said they resigned as advisors to fast-food chain KFC

after the company asked them to sign an agreement

preventing them from speaking publicly about its

policies on such issues as animal slaughter.

 

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Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University and

Dr. Ian Duncan of the University of Guelph in Ontario,

Canada, said they stepped down from KFC parent Yum

Brands Inc.'s animal welfare committee this week after

being sent the agreement, which Grandin said would

have required them to refer all media inquiries to

KFC's corporate headquarters.

 

" I resigned because there is a document that I can't

sign, " Grandin said in an interview on Thursday. " I

feel very strongly that I can talk freely to the press

about how the program's working, what's been going on

with the program. "

 

Grandin, who has also worked with chains such as

McDonald's Corp., Wendy's International Inc., and

Burger King Corp., said she is used to preserving

confidentiality with respect to suppliers and pricing

information. But, she said, no other company,

including KFC, has ever asked her to sign an agreement

asking her to refrain from speaking to the press.

 

" Certain things are confidential ... I will not give

out pricing information or information about who is

supplying chicken where, " Grandin said. " That type of

confidentiality agreement I sign all the time. "

 

KFC spokeswoman Bonnie Warschauer said the contract

was no different from previous confidentiality

agreements members of the animal welfare committee,

including Grandin and Duncan, have signed.

 

" It's just the same confidentiality agreement they've

always had. We're just asking everybody to re-sign

it, " Warschauer said.

 

She did not specify why the company was asking

committee members to sign the agreement again, and

added that she did not know whether other members of

the committee had signed it.

 

" I don't see why they wouldn't, " Warschauer said.

 

Warschauer said that Grandin, Duncan and another

animal welfare expert gave KFC a list of

recommendations on animal welfare in March. Warschauer

said the company has a " plan of action " for each one

of the steps on the list.

 

Duncan, who along with Grandin has served on the

committee for about three years, said he, too, would

have felt curtailed by the agreement.

 

" The way that I read it, it wouldn't allow me to talk

in general terms about animal welfare, " Duncan said in

an interview on Wednesday. " If someone phoned me up

and said 'You are on the KFC animal welfare

committee,' I was bound to say 'No comment. " '

 

KFC has been criticized by animal rights activists,

who claim the chain has not done enough to make sure

the chickens it uses are cared for and slaughtered

humanely.

 

Last year, the issue reached a boiling point when a

video made public by animal rights group People for

the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) showed workers

at a West Virginia chicken processing plant that

supplies KFC ripping off birds' beaks, spitting

tobacco into their mouths and eyes, and stomping and

kicking them.

 

Duncan said KFC still " has some way to go " in

improving its animal welfare standards.

 

" I've not been happy with the progress that's been

made in setting standards, " he said.

 

Grandin agreed that KFC " needs to be strengthening

some things, " but said the company had made progress.

 

" Change happens slowly and they have been making some

improvements, " she said.

 

A call to KFC for a response to these comments was not

immediately returned.

 

KFC is working on a new agreement with both Grandin

and Duncan under which they would serve as " technical

advisors " to the company, Warschauer said. She said

the company would be adding members to its animal

welfare advisory board.

 

Grandin said the company had contacted her in an

effort to work out an agreement and said she would be

willing to continue working with KFC so long as the

confidentiality agreement was scrapped.

 

 

 

 

 

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