The Writing Is on the Wall’—Bird Flu Crisis Prompts Warning Message From PETA Across from KFC

For Immediate Release:
April 11, 2025

Contact:
Alex Payne 202-483-7382

As bird flu continues to surge across the country, a warning from PETA has risen across the street from KFC and other meaty Modesto eateries. The sky-high appeal points out the reality that meat and egg eaters would prefer to ignore: The deadly disease is poised to become the next pandemic—and it’s not going away anytime soon.

The central San Joaquin Valley reported the most bird flu-infected flocks in the state last year, with nearly 6 million chickens killed—and nationwide, over 32 million chickens have already died or been killed as a result of the virus this year alone. To kill the birds, workers typically asphyxiate them in gas chambers, smother them with a substance similar to firefighting foam, or shut off all airflow to the sheds where the animals are kept, raising the temperature to a level at which they will slowly suffocate—a prolonged and horrifying process.

Photo: PETA.

“Filthy sheds packed with thousands or millions of birds living in their own waste are incubators of disease and misery,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to stop pouring their money into this pandemic-producing industry and please, go vegan—before it’s too late.”

Billboard location: 1431 Kansas Ave., Modesto, next to the Modesto Mural.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness and free vegan starter kits for anyone thinking of making the switch. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.