Slaughtered ‘Chickens’ On Display To Protest Kfc Cruelty

PETA Demands That Chain Improve Raising, Killing Methods 

For Immediate Release:
26 November 2004

Contact:
Sean Gifford +44 20 7357 9229, ext. 226

Dublin – 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:

Date: Saturday, 27 November
Time: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Place: Main entrance to the Clare Hall Shopping Centre, Dublin

Undercover investigations into KFC suppliers in the US, Germany, India, England and Australia have all revealed the same abuses: crippled chickens living in crowded, filthy conditions. The Sunday Mirror led a report on an investigation into a UK KFC supplier with the headline “Distressed and Dying in a Cramped Shed … Nobody Does Chicken Like KFC”. PETA’s recommended changes are based on the scientific work of KFC’s own animal welfare advisors and would eliminate only the worst abuses.

PETA is calling for an end to the manual gathering of chickens – which often breaks the animals’ legs and wings – and demanding that KFC stop breeding and drugging birds in such a way that they become crippled under their own weight or suffer from heart failure or lung collapse. The group is also asking for minimal improvements in the way birds are slaughtered for KFC. Currently, many chickens are scalded to death in feather-removal tanks while they are still fully conscious.

High-profile support for PETA’s campaign has come from Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, Pamela Anderson, The Black Eyed Peas, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde, among others. More than 2,000 protests against KFC have taken place around the world so far.

“KFC stands for cruelty in our book”, says PETA Europe’s Director of European Campaigns Sean Gifford. “More than 750 million chickens are killed each year for KFC in the cruellest ways imaginable, yet KFC has refused to do anything whatsoever to eliminate the worst abuses that these animals suffer.”

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

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