PETA Media Center > Recent News Releases : Peta Wins Five-year Kentucky Fried Cruelty Campaign in Canada

Negotiations Lead to Groundbreaking Animal Welfare Changes

For Immediate Release:
June 2, 2008

Contact:
Matt Prescott 757-622-7382

Vaughan, Ontario -- The Canadian aspect of PETA's highly publicized international campaign against KFC--which was launched in January 2003--ended this week when Vaughan, Ontario-based United Purchasing Group of Canada (UPGC) pledged to dramatically improve animal welfare standards and the treatment of chickens purchased for Canadian KFCs. According to the new plan, UPGC--which coordinates the purchase of chickens for all KFCs in Canada--will take the following actions:

� Ensure the phase-in of 100 percent of chicken-meat purchases from suppliers that use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)--the least cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed
� Improve the audits used to monitor Canadian KFCs' chicken suppliers in order to reduce the number of broken bones and other injuries suffered by birds
� Urge Canadian KFCs' chicken suppliers to adopt better practices, including improved lighting, more space for birds, lower ammonia levels, and a phase-out of growth-promoting drugs and breeding practices that painfully cripple chickens
� Form an animal welfare advisory panel to monitor the changes and recommend further advancements

The majority of KFCs in Canada are also offering a faux-chicken menu item in their restaurants.

The agreement follows nearly seven months of closed-door negotiations, which included meetings in Toronto and at PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Va.

"Finally, chickens killed for KFCs in Canada will be afforded better lives and gentler deaths, and customers will be able to choose a delicious, vegetarian option," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.

For more information about PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign--which will continue outside Canada--please visit PETA's Web site KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

A list of notable actions from PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign follows.

Since 2003, PETA's international campaign against KFC--which PETA will continue waging against KFC outside Canada--has included the following actions:

� More than 12,000 protests--including many in Canada--at KFC restaurants worldwide. Protests have included burning effigies of Col. Sanders; having bikini-clad activists--including Playboy Playmate Lauren Anderson--hold signs reading, "KFC Tortures Chicks"; holding demonstrations in front of the homes of KFC's top executives; having a giant "chicken" "slaughter" an activist--who was hung upside-down--dressed as Col. Sanders; and displaying a sign reading, "John Bitove & KFC Cripple Chickens," on the Jumbotron at a Toronto Blue Jays game during a filmed marriage proposal.

� Support from dozens of celebrities, including Vancouver native Pamela Anderson (whose anti-KFC ads have aired throughout Canada), musician Sir Paul McCartney, spiritual leader His Holiness The Dalai Lama, civil rights activist The Rev. Al Sharpton, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, American rock bands Good Charlotte and Fall Out Boy, adult filmporn star Jenna Jameson, singer-songwriter Alecia "Pink" Moore, and rock icon Chrissie Hynde (who was arrested while protesting KFC in France)

� A hugely popular online video game called Super Chick Sisters, in which players rescue Pamela Anderson from the clutches of Col. Sanders

� A 2005 complaint submitted by Dr. David Suzuki, Farley Mowat, and other prominent Canadians to Canada's Competition Bureau alleging that, at the time, the largest Canadian KFC franchisee had made false and misleading statements about animal welfare (the company stopped making these statements after the complaint was submitted)

� A victorious lawsuit against KFC in the U.S. over false and misleading statements

� Undercover investigations into KFC suppliers worldwide--including numerous KFC "Supplier of the Year" facilities, such as one in West Virginia where workers were documented stomping on live birds, tearing their heads off, spitting tobacco into their eyes, and spray-painting their faces

� The promotion of the heavily trafficked and widely publicized Web site KentuckyFriedCruelty.com

� Thousands of reports by the world's largest news outlets, including The New York Times, USA Today, the National Post, the Globe & Mail, U.S. News & World Report, The Guardian (U.K.), The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and CBS Evening News.

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