Written by Jeff Mackey
Hey, Soul Sister! PETA has sent an urgent letter to the rock band Train urging the group to cancel their performance at KFC's franchisee convention in San Antonio—or else face the music from PETA supporters—because of KFC's refusal to stop its suppliers' cruelty to chickens.
Many of the top names in music have taken a strong public stand against KFC, including Sir Paul McCartney, Pink, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Chrissie Hynde. Let's hope that Train gets on board, too, but if they take KFC's dirty money, they must carry the company's baggage—and PETA will protest their show.
Even those of us who are not quite famous can tell KFC to take cruelty to chickens off the menu. Sign Pink's petition demanding that KFC require its suppliers to stop abusing birds (and don't eat at its restaurants until it agrees).
Written by PETA
Last weekend, a flock of really "angry birds" showed that green pigs aren't the enemy—the Colonel is. The birds landed at a San Jose, California, KFC to make the point that the fast-food chain's suppliers use a cruel method of slaughter in which chickens have their throats cut while they're still conscious and millions of birds are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. When one passerby heard about this, she vowed never to eat at KFC again.
Because the voltage levels of electric stun tanks in U.S. slaughterhouses are kept at only a fraction of the level needed to render chickens insensible to pain, birds are usually paralyzed but still conscious when their throats are cut. Government studies show that birds feel pain after being shocked, even if they can't move. If the birds miss the mechanical cutting blade, they are alive when they are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water intended to remove their feathers after they are dead.
Tell KFC that until it agrees to switch to the less cruel slaughter method that PETA is recommending—which is already in use in other slaughterhouses—it can take a flying leap.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
Aaron Jamison, the terminally ill Oregon man who approached his cancer with a wry sense of acceptance, has died. He left the world with grace, humor, and purpose.
When PETA learned last year that Aaron wanted to sell advertisements on his urns in order to reduce the financial burden on his wife, Kristin, we offered to buy two ads, and Aaron, who had a wonderful sense of humor in addition to being a kind and practical man, accepted our offer. One of the ads we suggested reads, "I've Kicked the Bucket—Have You? Boycott KFC." We explained to Aaron that KFC's suppliers cram the birds slated to end up in all those buckets into huge sheds, where they live amid their own waste and are bred and drugged to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. We informed him that many birds suffer broken bones when slammed into shackles at the slaughterhouse before their throats are cut. Yet the company refuses to adopt the common-sense improvements recommended by its own animal welfare advisors.
Aaron was also an advocate of adopting homeless, mixed-breed dogs and cats from shelters. He wrote on his blog, Judas Forgiven, about the importance of donating to shelters and the joy that his beautiful dog, Belle, brought into his life. Since PETA shared Aaron's concern that every puppy or kitten born means one home fewer for dogs and cats desperately waiting in a shelter or roaming the streets, PETA's other urn ad reads, "People Who Buy Purebred Dogs Really Burn Me Up. Always Adopt."
We ask everyone who knew Aaron or was influenced by this kind man to honor him by "choosing joy," as he put it, and by doing everything that we can to allow animals—who are capable of experiencing such unfettered happiness—to choose joy too.
KFC has had to pull false advertising from its Australian website after a flap with a consumer watchdog group.
KFC had touted that chickens raised for the brand were "free to roam" on farms. But cramming chickens so tightly inside filthy, windowless sheds that they can barely take a step or lift a wing doesn't exactly qualify as "free roaming." When the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched legal action against a KFC supplier for false claims on the supplier's website, KFC backpedaled.
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If only KFC were forced to do the same stateside, where the company has refused the recommendations of its own animal welfare advisors to eliminate the worst abuses of chickens, such as scalding birds to death.
Until KFC stops the charade, tell the company that you aren't buying it, and ask it to eliminate the worst abuses of chickens.
Ryan Gosling has certainly earned his cape this month. First, he broke up a street fight in Manhattan. Then, the Academy Award-nominated actor leapt to the defense of chickens and turkeys on factory farms. Gosling wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on PETA's behalf calling on the agency to revoke its approval of a foam-based extermination method that kills birds by submerging them in foam to slowly suffocate them. This process can take up to 15 minutes and is as traumatic and panic-inducing as killing birds by choking them, strangling them, smothering them, or burying them alive.
"If dogs and cats were killed in this way, the person committing these acts would be charged with cruelty to animals," Gosling wrote. He went on to urge the USDA to put its stamp of approval on a less cruel alternative that uses carbon dioxide to painlessly render birds unconscious and that has already been approved by veterinary experts.
This isn't the first time that Gosling has flexed his impressive muscles in birds' behalf. He previously wrote to KFC and McDonald's urging the fast-food chains to adopt PETA's proposed animal welfare reforms.
We just love a guy who has such a drive to stick up for chicks. You can be a hero for animals, too—don't patronize McDonald's or KFC.
Written by Alisa Mullins
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade, may be cooling his heels thanks to the NBA lockout, but he still shouldn’t go back to slinging deep-fried chicken parts at KFC, where he once worked as a teenager. KFC has asked Wade to bring his dunking skills to mashed potatoes and gravy by becoming an “honorary captain” while he’s “unemployed.” But PETA quickly wrote to D-Wade and explained why that would be a foul for fowl.
“While defenders know that ‘broken ankles’ are a risk with your crossovers on the court, chickens killed for KFC often have their fragile legs broken when they are slammed into metal shackles, among other horrifying abuses,” wrote Senior Manager Michelle Cho.
We also asked D-Wade to use his influence with KFC to ask the chain to require its suppliers to use a less cruel slaughter method. Hopefully, the NBA champ won’t be appearing behind a KFC window any time soon, and will stick to only inflicting pain on the court.
After more than a year of stonewalling, KFC's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, has finally gotten around to officially denying PETA's request for a permit to display our giant crippled chicken statue at a city intersection.
Over the past year, Louisville officials have devised various creative and ever-changing obstacles to PETA's application, including an imaginary "moratorium" on permits for public exhibits, a new requirement that adjacent property owners must approve of a public exhibit, a months-long delay in reviewing PETA's application, and other free-speech-trampling tactics that PETA believes were nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to prevent people from finding out how KFC suppliers abuse chickens.
Strangely, officials didn't seem to have any objection when KFC erected a giant bucket of fried chicken in a shopping mall.
Hmmm … sounds like a great spot for our chicken statue. Speaking of which, does anyone know a good pro bono attorney in Chickentown?
If you participate in demonstrations, you might have experienced a bit of frustration at the occasional rude comments or less-than-perfect weather conditions. Next time that happens, spare a thought for Edward, a PETA Asia campaigner who was arrested as he got out of a cab dressed as a chicken for a Kentucky Fried Cruelty protest in Singapore. Here's Edward preparing for another KFC demo in Malaysia:
Edward, who is originally from Seattle, was essentially placed under house arrest in his hotel room because Singapore has some very harsh and archaic laws against protests. He is expected to be able to leave Singapore as scheduled, without charges. He says that the interrogation was frightening, but that it is nothing compared to how KFC treats chickens. That's our kind of guy.
If you'd like to show solidarity with Edward, why not organize a KFC demonstration yourself?
At PETA, we sometimes embrace things that others might call "bizarre," like Andy Dick's interview as Ronald McDonald with Jiminy Glick.
So when people started ringing our phones wanting our reaction to the recent news that Mike Myers is "kind of obsessed" with painting KFC's Colonel Sanders, we might have puzzled some callers who assumed we'd be alarmed or offended to learn about his muse. We're not. Monet may have had his water lilies but, hey, not all artists are inspired by foliage.
Besides, at the recent premiere of Shrek Forever After, the actor/funnyman/artist told our own Senior Vice President Dan Mathews that after watching a PETA video, he doesn't eat chicken anymore.
That's no surprise, really—after all, like art, many individual's attitudes are ever-evolving—and countless caring people have kicked KFC's unhealthy buckets from their diets.
So we're thankful that one more person has chosen not to support the appalling cruelty that's imposed upon billions of chickens, and we'll daydream that Mike Myers might one day honor us with a gift of one of his renderings of the Colonel. If we paired it with our crippled KFC chicken statue from artist Harry Bliss, we could add immeasurable artistic flair to our Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign.
Just about everyone is badmouthing KFC's vile new Double Down sandwich. (Gee, wonder why?) Guess which celebrity just called it the "double bypass" and said, "I just don't see a need for it, it's like handing people a gun"?
Check out the CNN clip for the answer.
Written by Heather Moore
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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