PETA to Serve Navy Pier’s TenderFest a Grisly Dose of Chicken Slaughter This Saturday

For Immediate Release:
October 8, 2026

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

This Saturday at TenderFest—the self-proclaimed “world’s largest chicken tender festival”—PETA supporters will give attendees a visceral look at the cruelty behind the meal: A woman will be hung upside down and have her throat “slit” to reenact how chickens are killed in the meat industry. The grisly display will remind festivalgoers that chickens feel love, joy, pain, and fear and value their lives, just as all animals do.

“PETA’s bloody display will remind festivalgoers that every bite of a chicken tender started with a thinking, feeling bird’s violent death,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on everyone to let birds live in peace and dig into delicious vegan tenders instead.”

Where:           Outside TenderFest at Navy Pier, at the intersection of E. Grand Avenue and Park Drive

When:             Saturday, October 10, 11 a.m.

Why:               Chickens are social learners who watch and emulate one another. They form strong bonds, dream when they sleep, and worry about the future, just as humans do—but in the meat industry, chickens are confined by the tens of thousands to severely crowded, filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under their weight. At slaughterhouses, mechanized blades slit their throats—often while they’re still conscious—and many are scalded to death in de-feathering tanks.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—points out that when it comes to the ability to feel pain, hunger, and thirst, a chicken is a dog is a boy. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.