‘CHICKEN’ WILL CROSS THE ROAD TO PROTEST KFC FOR WORLD FARMED ANIMALS DAY
For Immediate Release:
2 October 2003
Contact:
Nicola Drew 020 7357 9229, ext 225; 07791 857041 (mobile); [email protected]
Mandy Cairns 07866 273673
Kirkcaldy – Holding signs that read, ‘The Colonel’s Secret Recipe: Live Scalding, Painful Debeaking, Crippled Chickens’, members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will protest the abusive treatment of chickens by KFC’s suppliers at a local KFC restaurant. A giant, crippled ‘chicken’ will hobble across the road in front of the restaurant, while activists hand out leaflets. The protest is part of a coordinated effort involving more than 200 similar demonstrations taking place in the UK, Europe and around the world in the days surrounding World Farmed Animals Day on 2 October, which is also the birthday of vegan and animal rights champion Mahatma Gandhi.
Date: Saturday, 4 October
Time: 1 pm-2 pm
Place: KFC Drive Thru, Fife Central Retail Park, Kirkcaldy
PETA launched an international campaign against KFC in January after nearly two years of failed negotiations with KFC’s parent company, Yum! Brands, in the US. 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. Seinfeld star and ex-KFC pitchman Jason Alexander had his contract with KFC cancelled after PETA enlisted him to speak to company execs about the suffering of chickens. The campaign follows victories over McDonald’s and Burger King – both of which bowed to PETA pressure to reduce the cruel treatment of animals raised and slaughtered for food. Earlier this year, PETA US successfully sued to force KFC and Yum! Brands to remove false statements from their Web sites and 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. PETA’s recommended improvements are all approved by members of KFC’s own animal-welfare advisory panel and are based on the latest available scientific research.
‘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.’
Protests are planned in cities throughout the world and have already begun across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, please visit KFCCruelty.co.uk.