Jun13
KFC Scalds Chicks
Posted at 02:38 PM | Permalink
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Comments (25)
Every once in a while, someone notices that women are featured in PETA's provocative ads and demonstrations more often than men are. It's not that PETA, as an organization, doesn't appreciate animal-loving, nearly naked men—it's just that usually the ads and demonstrations make more sense or will garner more attention to animal rights issues with women as the stars.
For instance, if young chickens were called "dudes," "guys," or "homeboys," I personally assure you that we would have called out the Broccoli Boys and there would have been a couple of male PETA volunteers at our recent scalding-tank reenactment demos (photos below). Alas, young chickens (the chickens killed for KFC are only about 45 days old when they are slaughtered) are called chicks. As are women. Global conspiracy or convenient protest idea? I can't say—but it is one thing we have to work with in the battle against KFC.
PETA's latest demonstration highlights that while chickens killed for KFCs in Canada will soon be killed using the least cruel slaughter method available, birds killed for KFC in the U.S. are still scalded to death. It costs KFC more money, and it's just plain cruel.
Here are some details from our news release (it's not that I'm lazy—I just thought it was already well explained):
Because the voltage levels of electric stun tanks in U.S. slaughterhouses are kept at only a fraction of the level needed to render chickens insensible to pain, birds are usually paralyzed but still conscious when their throats are cut. Government studies show that birds feel pain after being shocked, even if they can't move. According to the USDA, every year, millions of birds—who are conscious and able to feel pain—enter tanks of hot water that are intended to remove their feathers after the birds are dead.
Great demo, Colleen and Shawn. And happy birthday, Colleen! I'm sorry you share it with the gruesome twosome.
More photos, wonderful photos:
—Joel Bartlett
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Comments
Hello,
I am Not here to support kfc but i am here to defend the chicken farmers of kfc that do not support these practices. I know of many farmers in canada who raise chickens for kfc and treat them with the ut most respect. i do think however that we do need to change how these chickens get treated on the farm that do torture them. Let's try and acknowledge the good people who love animals and try to save them from this harm and not penalize them for being associated with the bad people. so yes Kentucky fried cruelty but not every where and let's remember that.
sincerely,
Shayla
Posted by: Shayla | June 13, 2008 04:02 PM
You could always go with "KFC Scalds Cocks." ;) Well, not without getting in trouble.
I love you PETA, but seriously, use more naked men. In this case, it makes sense to use women, but what about the recent exotic skins thing? What about the State of the Union Undress? What about the sexy fashion police and the Lettuce Ladies? (I know there are Lettuce Lads as well, but I've never seen them anywhere outside their webpage.)
Posted by: Canaduck | June 13, 2008 06:21 PM
Shayla,
But "Good people that love animals" don't kill them for a living.
Posted by: Curtis | June 14, 2008 01:21 AM
I love this idea :) grate job!
Posted by: heather | June 14, 2008 01:18 PM
Curtis
Shayla seems to forget that very important point---all of these farmers still kill them.
Posted by: Ana | June 14, 2008 02:56 PM
very nice! I apreciate the people who does this kind of protest, Thanks PETA for all your hard work for the animals
Posted by: liliana | June 14, 2008 04:48 PM
I agree with Curtis. Well said.
Posted by: NT | June 14, 2008 11:27 PM
Curtis,
Good people that love animals still need to make a living.
Posted by: RIP C. Heston | June 15, 2008 05:18 AM
Yeah, and we all know the only way there is to make a living is to kill animals, they'll starve if they give up farming, just like the whole world was suppose to go under when they ended the slave trade...
Amazing thing is that I've never been a chicken/cow/pig killing farmer and I'm not starving.
Peace.
Posted by: Brian W. Lockyer | June 15, 2008 11:35 AM
R.I.P C.H,
That is the same excuse used by pimps and sweatshop owners. Loving something is not killing,tormenting,and eventually treating it like an object and a mere product of monetary value.
Posted by: Annalena | June 15, 2008 11:32 PM
I realize everyone needs to make a living but does it have to be done with cruelty? or is it the most profitable way for money makers to make more money?
Posted by: Wanda | June 16, 2008 04:40 AM
RIP, Good people would find a better way of making a living than killing animals.
Posted by: lynda downie | June 16, 2008 07:50 AM
You guys are all so strongly positioned on all this stuff, I've read through almost the entire website....
why not put your efforts somewhere more worthwhile?
like..human rights? instead of spending all this money on these campaigns..you could...I don't know..have helped with hurricane relief..or famine and aids relief in africa...
those seem like much more worthwhile causes...to me
Posted by: benjamin ramone | June 16, 2008 07:09 PM
Benjamin, I work for both animal and human causes and donate to both--As I'm sure many of us do, and we don't feel a need to choose between compassion to animals and compassion to people. In fact, it gets kind of tiring being told we have to choose between the two. Instead, why don't you expand your activism to include animals as well as humans? It's not a competition, animals and people both deserve compassion and humane treatment. I reject the traditional judeo-christian pyramid where animal life is less important than human life. It's about making the world a more merciful place for all living beings.
Posted by: Cate Holt | June 16, 2008 08:40 PM
Just my opinion here, but I think that we who try to protect animals are missing the mark on compassion, as is illustrated here by Shayla's comment.
We push the feeling sorry for the animal too much and not enough for respecting the animal. People who abuse animals always say they love their animals, and the probably do.
Farmers probably love their animals as well - and say they feel sorry for them. But they don't respect them. I hope we can make a distinction and "activist" accordingly.
Posted by: Maya, CVT | June 16, 2008 09:49 PM
good point Maya
Go Vegan...
Posted by: Holly | June 17, 2008 01:04 AM
Wow...KFC is so inhumane. it's just so sad to pass that place. People DO NOT buy food there. Like seriously..from "Kuntuky Fried CHicken" to "Killers for Chickens"
Posted by: Sylvia | June 17, 2008 03:50 AM
i think it's a great idea! KFC must stop with slaughting chickens!!!
Posted by: Anahita | June 17, 2008 05:58 PM
Thank you Holly! ;)
And thank you and Ana and all the others who have encouraged me towards a vegan diet instead of just vegetarian....I'm trying! ;)
Posted by: Maya, CVT | June 17, 2008 11:32 PM
I love my dog but I also love a good cheeseburger. This makes me a bad person? You folks are something else.
Posted by: Chrissy | June 19, 2008 05:04 AM
This is ridiculous, I am not a Pam Anderson fan, but I do not hold signs and protest her sex video with Tommy Lee. To answer a staement earlier in the blog, people who love animals do work at poultry plants. It's called, "I have kids and I have to support my family". Some People just do not live in the real world anymore; there are still labor jobs that allow some to sit around and come up with crap like this to do. I worked in the the poultry industry for 10 years. I was in Perdue Farms, Tyson, DQH...all of the plants basically throughout half the US. I, personally, saw maybe 4-5 instances where abuse was taking place (someone kicking a chicken or something). In these plants, CHICKEN = MONEY & PROFIT. If a supervisor saw someone doing something stupid, it would be handled immediately. If for no other reason, for the simple fact you are hurting his production #'s and his PAYCHECK. YOU don't have to eat it, but I LOVE chicken. For the record, the stunner is always working and there is someone there to slit the chicken neck if the mechanical blade misses; then they are scaled. Everybody knows everything, but nobody has ever been in to see it themselves, day in and day out for SEVERAL MONTHS. Snapshots are deceiving and please wake up, we ARE the supreme animal in the world and we survive by, "survival of the fittest."
AND if you eat fruits, vegtables, and smoke cigarettes (tobacco harvesting) you are doing another injustice because the people who do these jobs are illegal migrant workers mostly. BOYCOTT eating that too, because you are supporting a larger problem than chickens.
Posted by: Brandon | June 24, 2008 03:27 PM
I do not agree with everything that Peta stands for, but I appreciate that they are working hard to end animal cruelty. The last commenter suggested that "if you eat fruits, vegtables (sic)...you are doing another injustice because the people who do these jobs are illegal migrant workers mostly..." I try not to eat anything but locally grown fruits and vegetables. Not because I don't want to support illegal migrants, but because I believe in increasing our sustainability and I want to know how my food is cared for-I, for one, didn't have to worry about the tomato scare. Eat vegan, try to eat local (or grow your own) and support your locally owned stores. And for heaven sakes, if you are going to eat meat then educate yourself about how it is raised and cared for. There are many local options for purchasing pasture raised animals. Buy directly from the farmer and you will see what you are getting and how they operate.
Posted by: Carmen | June 24, 2008 10:56 PM
I feel bad about the way animals are treated in the slaughter houses and how the people working can't seem to find a way to kill the animals in a less brutal way but when it really comes down to it, not everyone can be a vegetarian. Vegetables can only fill you up so much. I may feel bad for the animals but the honest truth is that I could never survive on vegetables alone. In the end it'll all come down to them or me: save the animals and go hungry or eat them and live. I'm pretty sure anyone who values self preservation would agree with the second. I know it sounds selfish to say but I would pick to eat the animals and not starve. But that doesn't change the way I feel about how they're killed. If farmers could find a way to kill the animals in a more "humane" way, in a way that the animals would feel the LEAST amount of pain, then I'm all for it.
Posted by: aundrea | June 29, 2008 04:24 AM
aundrea, you won't starve by letting animals live. You have the choice to follow a healthy vegan diet.
Posted by: lynda downie | June 30, 2008 12:02 AM
Awesome, Good job. Poor Chickens. Really Its Horrible What They Do To Them.
LOL By the way!
Posted by: Paul | July 14, 2008 10:59 PM