Okay, now that I have your attention.........
PETA addresses the issue of inhumane treatment of chickens by KFC at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com:
PETA is asking KFC to eliminate the worst abuses that chickens suffer on the factory
farms and in the slaughterhouses of its suppliers, including live scalding, life-long crippling,
and painful debeaking. The more than 850 million chickens killed each year for KFC are tortured
in ways that would result in felony cruelty-to-animals charges if cats or dogs were the victims, but KFC still refuses to make changes. As the leader in the chicken industry, KFC has a responsibility to ensure that the chickens raised for its buckets are protected from the worst cruelties.
I was, essentially, minding my own business Thursday afternoon. Doing my radio show, and
blogivating on the side, when I headed for the little boy's room and noticed that, once again,
the fax machine was dumping its output all over the floor.
Sigh.
So I picked up the mess, and in amongst the usual pile of PSAs for church socials, sales pitches for
streaming services and syndicated shows, and deadly-dull press releases from the Department of
Agriculture and VDOT, I found this:
GIANT CRIPPLED `CHICKEN' CROSSES THE ROAD IN HARRISONBURG TO PROTEST KFC
Beleaguered `Bird' Sets Sights on KFC to Protest Factory-Farming Abuses
For Immediate Release:
December 7, 2006
Contact:
Lindsay Rajt 757-622-7382
Harrisonburg, Va. -- A giant crippled "chicken" will repeatedly cross the road
in front of a local KFC to lead a protest against the company's abusive treatment of chickens.
Other PETA members will distribute leaflets to passersby, and one activist will wear a body
screen TV showing shocking video footage of factory-farming abuse.
Date: Friday, December 8
Time: 11 a.m.
Place: KFC, 891 Cantrell Ave., Harrisonburg
The more than 850 million chickens killed each year for KFC are tortured in ways that would
result in felony cruelty-to-animals charges if other animals were the victims. They are drugged
and bred to grow so large that many become crippled from the weight of their massive upper
bodies. Many have their throats slit while they are still conscious and are scalded to death in
defeathering tanks. KFC ignored recommendations for animal welfare improvements made by members
of its own advisory panel, including five who have since resigned in frustration.
"KFC stands for cruelty in our book," says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich. "If KFC employees
abused cats or dogs the way they abuse chickens, they could be thrown into prison on felony
charges of cruelty to animals."
For more information, please visit KFCCruelty.com.
Wow. PETA in Harrisonburg, VA, the bowels of right-wing hell. This, I decided, I had to see. Plus, it'd get me out of the shop in the middle of the day for a while.
Most of the rest of the detritus spewed forth from the fax machine went into the scratch
paper box, in deference to the trees that gave their lives so someone could tell every radio
station with a fax machine about the booking availability of various aging rock bands in their latest incarnations.
The PETA press release, however, got folded up and filed in the cargo pocket of my BDU
trousers which I frequently wear. (I like a lot of pockets.) I made a mental note to shoot off a
quick email to let them know we'd come out and take a look, and went back into the control room.
Couple minutes later, the receptionist came flouncing into the studio (she flounces everywhere she goes) and told me, "There's a call on line one from somebody wanting to speak to
the news department......."
Knowing who it had to be, I told Angela, "We don't HAVE a news department."
Those huge green eyes of hers took on that confused look with which I am so familiar, and
I grinned and said, "I'll take care of it."
Sure enough, It was Lindsay from PETA. "Hey, I got your fax", I told her, "and as one progressive to another, I gotta tell ya, this is a pretty right-wing town, you know....could be an interesting experience..."
She assured me the PETA people were ready for anything that might come their way, and I told her we'd send somebody out to help the chicken cross the road.
Having given my word, I was now committed.
So, the following day, when I arrived at work in the morning, I told Walker (the operations manager) that I was going to lunch with Ashley, our web designer and afternoon talent on the country station.
"Where you guys goin'?" he asked me.
"KFC," I told him.
He shot me a look. "Dammit, Eddie, you just can't stay out of trouble, can you?"
I just grinned. "We're just gonna take some pictures and stuff and I'm gonna bloggerize it."
He grumbled something about how PETA doesn't believe in a free country, and reached into his pocket.
"Here, you might as well take the Magic Bus", he said, and tossed me the key.
And away we went. Learned a few things too:
Leading animal behavior scientists from across the globe now tell us that chickens
are inquisitive and interesting animals whose cognitive abilities are more advanced than those of cats, dogs, and even some primates. Chickens understand sophisticated intellectual concepts, learn from watching each other, demonstrate self-control, worry about the future, and even have cultural knowledge that is passed from generation to generation. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I'm talking about
monkeys."
And he ain't kiddin':
Weird Al Yankovic is hanging out someplace, mighta been the airport, and a fan comes up to him and says hello. That fan happens to be Paul McCartney. "I love your stuff," enthuses the former Beatle. "Anytime you want to do one of my songs, its yours!!!"
Weird Al is thrilled, but stumped - he can't figure out which song to do. After two years of fruitless pondering, it finally comes to him in the middle of the night. He sits bolt upright in bed, the passionate refrain to Live and Let Die ringing around his head. "Live and Let Die…Chicken Pot Pie! Yes!"
He contacted members of the orchestra that had played on the original Live and Let Die track, and flew them out to his studio. When he was ready to release the track, he contacted Sir Paul for approval. "I finally came up with the perfect song," he enthused. But Sir Paul was not amused.
"Oh no…" he said. "I can't possibly allow this - Linda would never have supported a song that celebrates the killing of chickens."
Yankovic has performed the song live (he debuted it as part of his concert food medley during a 1992 tour) but Chicken Pot Pie is still, as yet, unreleased…
Somehow, I bet it's gonna stay that way. Sorry, Weird Al. You're just gonna have to stick to your bologna.
Promptly at eleven o' clock, Ashley and I arrived at the Harrisonburg KFC.
No, the KFC marquee sign is not
photoshopped.
Ashley (left) with the ear-pleasingly British-accented PETA activist wearing the body-screen video display
Thousands of Chickens Tortured by KFC Supplier
In July 2004, PETA revealed the results of an investigation into a KFC-supplying slaughterhouse in Moorefield, West Virginia, where workers were caught on video stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals' beaks off, twisted their heads off, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed their bodies so hard that the birds expelled feces-all while the chickens were still alive. Dan Rather echoed the views of all kind people when he said on the CBS Evening News, "[T]here's no mistaking what [the video] depicts: cruelty to animals, chickens horribly mistreated before they're slaughtered for a fast-food chain."
The world's leading animal welfare experts condemned the cruelty at this KFC supplier. Colorado State University professor of animal science, biomedical sciences, and philosophy, university distinguished professor, and university bioethicist Dr. Bernard Rollin writes, "I can unequivocally state that the behavior I saw exemplified in [this] videotape was totally unacceptable. ... The tape showed evidence of a work force that apparently failed to recognize that chickens are living sentient beings capable of feeling pain and distress."
Apparently, the video referred to in the above blockquoted text had been used on the previous night's episode of CSI. Listen to the conversation with a truckdriver observing the protest from across the street from the KFC heard in this video of the Harrisonburg protest.
This activist wants to give you something to think about over lunch.
Routine Abuse and Neglect Found Inside German KFC Farm
Even in a country like Germany, where the rights of animals have been written into the Constitution and egg battery cages have been banned because of their inherent cruelty, chickens raised for food suffer hideous lives and miserable deaths. PETA investigators at a chicken farm in Bavaria (owned by Wiesenhof, one of Germany's largest chicken producers) documented hideous and routine abuse of chickens being raised for KFC restaurants in Germany.
More video from the protest. Listen closely as an activist offers a possible reason why the chicken never actually did cross the road.
The chicken didn't cross the road, but the kestrel did...
A kestrel stands with a chicken in avian solidarity.
For some final thoughts on this sort of thing, I can't resist referring you back to Tiger Mom's excellent diary from a few days back. No one I know realistically expects that we will see a worldwide vegan/vegetarian movement sweep the planet in our lifetime, but hey, if you must eat chicken, do chicken right.
Because, you see, after researching this piece, PETA, as entertaining as they often are (and intentionally so), convinced me of something:
KFC does chickens wrong.
Although I will certainly remain a committed omnivore, when it comes to chicken, I think I'll take my business elsewhere.
We birds of a feather gotta stick together.
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