PETA 'Chickens' to Poultry Moguls: 'Cluck Off!'

Group Plans Ear-Splitting 'Welcome' for Atlanta Conventioneers

For Immediate Release:
January 28, 2013

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382 

Atlanta --  Wearing chicken costumes while banging on pots and pans and holding signs that read, "Cluck Off, IPE!" and "We Are Not Nuggets!" 10 PETA members will converge outside the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on Tuesday—opening day of the International Poultry Expo (IPE). The rackety birds' point? That chickens used in the poultry and egg industries are abused in ways that would land producers in jail if their victims were cats or dogs.

When:   Tuesday, January 29, 12 noon 

Where:  Outside the Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd. N.W., near the intersection with Philips Drive, Atlanta

"PETA's 'chickens' are sending a wake-up call—a loud one—to everyone who profits from the misery and suffering of these widely abused birds," says PETA Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt. "Just like dogs and cats, chickens are sensitive, living beings, and they deserve far better than to be caged, mutilated, and killed."

When chickens are only days old, their sensitive beaks are cut off with hot

blades. Egg-laying hens then spend an average of two years crammed together with four to 10 other hens in cages so small that they can't even spread their wings. When their worn-out bodies can no longer produce enough eggs, the hens are slaughtered. Chickens raised for their flesh are bred to grow so quickly that their legs often can't support their weight. At slaughterhouses, they are slammed upside down into shackles so roughly that their bones often break. Millions are scalded to death.

To view video footage taken inside factory egg farms, click here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.