Coalition Prompts UWO Administrators to Keep Fast-Food Chain Off Campus in Response to the Restaurant's Suppliers' Cruel Treatment of Chickens
 
For Immediate Release:
May 1, 2009
 
Contact:
Michael Lyubinsky 757-622-7382
 
Oshkosh, Wis. -- For their hard work in persuading college administrators not to bring a planned KFC restaurant to their campus, a group of University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students will receive a Compassionate Student Award from peta2, the world's largest youth animal rights organization.
 
After UW Oshkosh students learned that their school was considering adding a campus KFC location in a deal that, according to the students, was nearly complete, a coalition of students and faculty began working five hours a day over four consecutive days to gather nearly 500 petition signatures against the plan. At an administration meeting before the final vote on the KFC issue, the students presented the petitions and outlined their reasons why adding a KFC would harm both the environment and animals. As a result, the administrators voted against allowing the KFC on campus and opted to go with a popular Chinese restaurant that features plenty of vegetarian options.
 
The more than 850 million chickens raised and killed for KFC every year are bred and drugged to grow so fast that their legs cannot support the weight of their upper bodies. Their throats are cut while they are still conscious, and millions are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. A PETA undercover investigation at the slaughterhouse of a KFC supplier in Moorefield, W.Va., that had been named "Supplier of the Year" by the fast-food chain documented that workers spit tobacco into live birds' eyes, spray-painted their faces, and stomped on them. At a slaughterhouse operated by Tyson Foods--another KFC supplier--workers maimed live birds with sharp knives and tore off their heads. Several members of KFC's own animal welfare advisory board resigned after KFC ignored their recommendations.
 
Says peta2 Assistant Director Dan Shannon, "We hope that the dedication and compassion that was shown by these UW Oshkosh students will inspire students at schools across the country to stand up to animal abuse and keep KFC from bringing its cruel products to their campuses."
 
For more information, please visit peta2.com/College.