KFC: Raise the Bar on Animal Welfare
Recently, the company that coordinates the purchases of chickens for KFCs in Canada decided to raise the bar on animal welfare and implement industry-leading changes. But KFC elsewhere is still lagging behind. In other countries, the fast-food giant does almost nothing to protect chickens from the worst abuses on factory farms and in slaughterhouses, including the following:
- The roughly 1 billion chickens killed each year for KFC's buckets are crammed by the tens of thousands into excrement-filled sheds that stink of ammonia fumes.
- Birds' legs and wings often break because they're bred to be too top-heavy and because workers carelessly shove them into transport crates and shackles.
- Chickens' throats are cut, and the animals are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers, often while they are still conscious and able to feel pain.
- KFC lets frustrated factory-farm and slaughterhouse workers handle live birds, so many of the animals end up being sadistically abused. At a KFC "Supplier of the Year" slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were documented tearing the heads off live birds, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and violently stomping on them. This was discovered more than two years after KFC promised PETA U.S. that it was taking animal welfare seriously.
- KFC hides behind its Animal Welfare Advisory Council, even though five members of the council have resigned in frustration. One of them, Adele Douglass, told the Chicago Tribune that KFC "never had any meetings. They never asked any advice, and then they touted to the press that they had this animal-welfare advisory committee. I felt like I was being used."
PETA wants KFC to adopt the animal welfare program developed by five members of its own animal welfare board. The program would eliminate the worst abuses of birds bred for KFC's buckets, including trading in their current throat-slitting slaughter method for Controlled Atmosphere Killing, the most humane form of slaughter available.
Please use the form below to write to David Novak, the CEO of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC in the U.S. and elsewhere. Ask that he implement minimal animal welfare standards.
Personalized letters always work best. Feel free to use the provided text, but your message will carry more weight if you write your own customized message and subject line.
