Group Says Chicken Chain's Statements Cover Up Chicken Abuse and Mislead Consumers

For Immediate Release:
April 10, 2009 

Contact:
Holly Beal 757-622-7382 

Washington -- This morning, PETA filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that fast-food chain KFC has consistently made false and misleading statements to consumers about its suppliers' treatment of chickens. The following are some examples of misleading statements: 

* The chickens raised and killed for its buckets and boxes routinely suffer painful, crippling injuries and have their limbs broken--despite KFC's false claims that it takes animal welfare seriously. Many have their throats cut open while they are still fully conscious.

* Five members of KFC's often-touted advisory board resigned after KFC refused to implement even one of its many recommendations.  

You wouldn't know it from reading KFC's carefully worded Web site or its public statements about animal welfare, but the more than 350 million chickens who are killed each year for KFC restaurants in the U.S. are crammed into dark, severely crowded sheds, where they are forced to live amid their own excrement and breathe ammonia-laden air that causes them respiratory distress and severe skin and throat burns. Selective breeding and growth-promoting drugs cause them to grow unnaturally large, which results in painfully splintered bones, organ failure, heart attacks, and strokes. Chickens on factory farms also suffer from chronic lameness, which can prevent them from reaching water troughs and food. 

At slaughterhouses, the chickens frequently suffer broken bones as workers slam their legs into metal shackles. Their throats are often cut while the birds are still conscious, and many are scalded alive in defeathering tanks. PETA's undercover video investigations of KFC suppliers' slaughterhouses have documented that workers slammed chickens into walls, spit tobacco in their eyes, and tore live birds' heads off. 

"KFC's suppliers routinely break live chickens' bones and scald birds to death, yet the company tells customers to keep on buying because it is treating animals humanely," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "It's fraudulent for a company to mislead or lie to consumers, and we're calling on the FTC to tell KFC to stop doing it."

A copy of PETA's complaint is available on request. For more information, please visit KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.