KFC Campaign Update

[Guest guest]

Greetings Bay Area Vegetarians!

I started to send some of you an individual update on the KFC campaign, but then I realized that so many BAV people are part of this protest I should just post to the list.

As PETA’s “Kentucky Fried Cruelty” campaign reaches its three-and-a-half-year mark, KFC has yet to show any signs that it will eliminate the worst abuses that the 850 million animals it kills each year suffer.

By now you are probably aware that five members of KFC’s Animal Welfare Advisory Council (AWAC) have resigned following KFC’s refusal to move on a single one of the council’s recommended changes. Now, nearly half of the fast-food chain’s AWAC consists of executives from KFC’s top chicken suppliers (Gold Kist, Tyson Foods, and Pilgrim’s Pride). These companies are not interested in animal welfare—in fact, birds at a Tyson plant were recently documented being maimed by killing machines and scalded to death, and Pilgrim’s Pride is the company that suffered after an investigation by PETA revealed that workers were stomping on live birds, spitting tobacco into their eyes, and spray-painting their faces. The involvement of these companies in KFC’s AWAC is likely to prevent any progress.

Because of KFC’s lack of movement, PETA’s campaign continues in full force. Here are a few highlights from the past six months:

 

Protests: PETA’s anti-KFC activist network has grown by 32 percent (to nearly 26,000 people), as has the number of demonstrations over the previous six-month period. These activists regularly stage creative, headline-grabbing protests in front of KFCs worldwide, which have resulted in countless news stories describing how KFC’s chickens suffer crippling leg deformities, have their throats slit while they are still conscious, and are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

 

Here’s just a sample of these demonstrations: In India, an activist dressed as a “sultry Satan” held a sign reading, “KFC: Hell for Chickens,” in front of a new KFC on 6/6/06; in Germany, an activist in a chicken costume was hung upside-down while another dressed as a “Pyscho Colonel Sanders” pretended to slit her throat; and throughout Europe and the United States, activists protested KFC by wearing yellow bikinis and proclaiming, “KFC Tortures Chicks.” Perhaps the most unusual and unorthodox protest was when PETA activist Chris Garnett legally changed his name to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com, which sparked an international media flurry directing people to the Web site with which he now shares his name.

Bay Area Vegetarians has played a big part in increasing both the number of activists and the number of protests—thank you!

Endorsements: Celebrities across the board continue to pledge their support for PETA’s campaign. Pop star P!nk launched a “Kick the Bucket” campaign by placing a petition against KFC on her Web site to coincide with the release of her latest album. Classic rockers Bobby Ingram from Molly Hatchet and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath also used their Web sites to promote PETA’s campaign. Legendary sitarist and composer Pundit Ravi Shankar grabbed headlines by urging his countless fans to boycott KFC until it stops selling tortured chickens. Musicians Tommy Lee and Phil Collins donated autographed drumsticks to benefit PETA’s campaign. Pamela Anderson, who is now recognized as an anti-KFC spokesperson, directed the public’s attention to KFC’s cruelty to animals when she asked the governor of Kentucky to remove a bust of Colonel Sanders from the capitol building and when she publicly boycotted the Kentucky Derby because of Yum! Brands’—KFC’s parent company—sponsorship of it. Pamela continues to draw attention to the issue by sending her undercover exposé of KFC’s supply farms to KFC managers and executives worldwide. In the last six months alone, her exposé has been downloaded or viewed more than 400,000 times on PETA’s Web site KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Canadian Competition Bureau Complaint: Although the Competition Bureau has yet to rule on PETA’s complaint regarding false and misleading statements made by KFC Canada and its parent company, Priszm, the complaint itself has apparently moved KFC Canada to remove the animal welfare section of its Web site entirely and to stop making claims that chickens in Canada are raised in “clean, well-ventilated barns where they can roam freely” and are not scalded while still alive. This marks the second time that KFC has removed false and misleading statements from its Web sites as a result of PETA’s efforts.

 

Investor Relations: The launch and promotion of PETA’s anti-KFC Web site www.YumInvestors.com marked PETA’s increased efforts to sway KFC through the investors of Yum! Brands. PETA has also begun meeting with Yum!’s top institutional investors, urging them to encourage Yum! to adopt the recommendations of its animal welfare advisors in order to stop the growing damage to KFC’s brand image and the financial losses resulting from KFC’s suppliers’ current slaughter practices. PETA’s most recent shareholder resolution with Yum! received support from nearly 10 percent of Yum!’s shareholders, sending the strong message that they believe KFC is risking its finances by continuing to sell abused animals. Additionally, The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business gave Yum! one of the lowest possible rankings for corporate social responsibility, based solely on the animal welfare controversy it has generated.

 

If you not seen this website, I encourage you to check it out and send to anyone you know who may be an investor.

 

 

As KFC digs in its heels on this issue, it continues to suffer damage to its brand—and the birds killed for its buckets continue to suffer in ways that would warrant cruelty-to-animals charges were they dogs, cats, pigs, or cows. As PETA begins to wrap up its fourth year of campaigning against KFC, please consider the suffering of these gentle animals and pledge to speak out against KFC as often as you can. Join a BAV protest, send the websites to your mailing list, write a letter to the editor; it all helps.

PETA has a great FAQ page specific to KFC, to help answer questions from non-veg acquaintances:

http://kfccruelty.com/faq.asp

 

The moment that KFC agrees to follow the advice of its advisors and to do so in an open and verifiable way, this campaign will be over—but until that time, please continue to encourage people to spread the word that KFC means cruelty. The Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign has exposed the inside of animal factories to millions of people previously unaware of how living chickens became fried chickens. That alone is a huge success, and once we win this campaign—which we will—the next challenge can be tackled!

 

Thanks BAV!

Alex