KFC's Abuses Continue

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from GoddessMom digest 245

 

KFC Attempts to Deceive Consumers

 

Corporation continues to support the worst abuses

 

On May 1, KFC issued a news release claiming to be adopting

?industry-leading

poultry guidelines.?

 

PETA is disgusted that KFC would attempt to deceive compassionate

consumers:

KFC?s release is worded so as to reassure chicken consumers who are

anxious to hear

that chickens are not cruelly treated by KFC and its suppliers and

slaughterers. But, in

fact, KFC continues to ignore its own animal welfare advisory board?s

recommendations as well as those of the humane community, still has not

adopted

the eight key minimum reforms, and instead continues to hide behind the

chicken

industry?s skirts, hoping that this will all go away and pretending that

it needs

government permission to switch to gas killing, an accepted method that

requires

nothing more than the decency to implement it.

 

These

industry ?standards? do nothing to

allow chickens to have anything resembling a natural life. Instead, they

allow for the

drugging and breeding of animals to make them grow so quickly that they

can barely

stand and are in constant pain from splintered limbs, from being slammed

into crates

when inspectors aren?t watching, from having their beaks seared off, and

from being

sent through the slaughter process while still conscious.

 

McDonald?s held off animal activists by pledging to investigate

alternatives in 1994

but didn?t make a single improvement until six years later, after PETA

launched a

campaign against the company. Burger King sent out a similar release the

day that

PETA launched a campaign against it and again two months later, but real

reforms

didn?t come for another four months. KFC officials have said from the

beginning that

they are ?committed to the humane treatment of animals,? yet we?ve been

asking

them to commit to standards for more than two years but KFC continues to

refuse to

implement the recommendations of its own farmed animal welfare experts.

 

KFC could

stop PETA?s campaign today by

pledging to implement our eight scientifically researched demands within a

given

timeframe.

 

 

 

Our Key Demands (Not One of Which Has Been Addressed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Replace electrical stunning and throat-slicing with gas killing. Experts

agree that gas

killing causes less suffering for birds than KFC?s present method of

snapping

chickens? legs into metal shackles and slicing their throats open, often

while they are

still conscious.

 

 

Install cameras in slaughterhouses to enforce humane standards. Cameras

should be

installed at key points for animal handling, including unloading areas,

the point of

entry into the ?stun? bath, the point of entry into the scalding tank, and

places where

chickens have their throats slit.

 

 

Switch to mechanized chicken-gathering. Studies have shown that when using

manual methods, there are four times as many broken legs, more than eight

times as

much bruising, and increased stress.

 

 

Use genetic selection for leaner breeding birds. Breed leaner, healthier

birds instead

of breeding the biggest, fattest birds possible.

 

 

Stop forcing rapid growth and using growth-promoting substances. These

practices

result in more metabolic disorders, painful chronic lameness, and a higher

mortality

rate.

 

 

Give chickens at least 1.5 square feet per bird, and give breeding flocks

at least 4

square feet per bird.

 

 

Include sheltered areas and perches in chickenhouses. This would enhance

the birds?

living space, reducing their stress and aggression, and allow them to

engage in some

of their natural behaviors.

 

 

Allow birds the opportunity to fulfill their natural desire for activity.

Provide the birds

with whole green cabbages to peck at and eat. The cabbages stimulate

healthy

activity, dispel boredom, and provide nutrients without adding to the

weight

problems of the birds.

 

 

 

" Perception creates what is there all along. "

--Diogenes Trannel

Jazz musician