Santa Ana Pueblo Meeting Prompts Aerial 'Attack' on Cruelty of Chain's Chicken Farming and Slaughter Methods

For Immediate Release:
October 17, 2008

Contact:
Nicole Matthews 757-622-7382

Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M. -- It's a bird! It's a plane! Wait! It's a plane looking to help birds--specifically chickens. Towing a banner that reads, "KFC Scalds Chickens to Death," an airplane hired by PETA will make several passes over KFC's franchisee golf outing on Monday.

The banner will fly over the Twin Warriors Golf Course at 1300 Tuyuna Trl. on Monday, October 20, from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

Why has PETA added an "air force" to its campaign against KFC? The roughly 1 billion chickens raised and killed every year for Yum Brands!--KFC's parent company in the U.S. and elsewhere--are bred and drugged to grow so quickly that they become crippled under the weight of their massive upper bodies. Birds' throats are cut while they are still conscious, and millions of birds are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. KFC ignored recommendations for animal welfare improvements made by its own animal welfare advisors, including five who have since resigned in frustration.

"If KFC franchisees and executives abused cats, dogs, cows, or pigs the way that their suppliers abuse chickens, they'd be locked up on cruelty-to-animals charges," says PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt. "Consumers care about animal welfare, so it's in the franchisees' best interests to help us turn up the heat on KFC to make basic changes that would improve the lives and deaths of these birds."

Broadcast-quality video footage of KFC suppliers is available. For more information, please visit PETA's Web site KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.