What KFC Needs to Improve

Chickens are probably the most abused animals on the face of the planet—they are treated in ways that would warrant felony cruelty-to-animals charges were they dogs, cats, or even cows or pigs. Because federal laws exempt chickens from the Animal Welfare and Humane Slaughter acts, sadistic and routine cruelty go unpunished, and it is up to companies like KFC to ensure that the chickens who end up in their buckets and boxes are not grossly abused. KFC has ignored this responsibility almost entirely, and its suppliers continue to abuse chickens—who are remarkable animals with distinct personalities, social orders, systems of communication, and intelligence as advanced as that of many other animals—in ways that would be illegal if dogs and cats were the victims.

KFC’s breeding birds have their sensitive beaks seared off with hot blades soon after they are born. "Broilers," or chickens raised for their flesh, are bred and drugged in order to make them gain weight quickly, which often causes their hearts and lungs to fail and their legs to become crippled under their own heavy bodies. Archaic slaughter methods and faulty machinery, combined with an absence of laws to protect chickens, cause millions of them to be scalded alive in feather-removal tanks or have their throats slit while they are still conscious.

PETA’s recommended animal welfare program was developed by members of KFC’s own animal welfare board and sent to KFC’s chief operating officer on March 11, 2005. KFC has yet to adopt any of the recommendations. Several members of KFC's animal welfare panel have resigned, after having been used by the company as a shield for years, during which time none of their (and PETA's) recommendations were adopted

The following is a basic outline of PETA's recommended animal welfare program for KFC:

• Adopt the “Animal Care Standards” program. This program creates guidelines to protect chickens on factory farms and covers issues such as ammonia concentration, lighting conditions, and living space in chicken sheds. It also prohibits intentional starvation of breeding birds and states that birds must be provided with mental and physical stimulation.

• Replace electrical stunning and throat-slitting with controlled-atmosphere killing. Experts agree that controlled-atmosphere killing causes much less suffering than KFC’s present method of snapping chickens’ legs into metal shackles and slitting their throats, often while they are still conscious.

• Switch to less cruel mechanized chicken gathering. Studies have shown that using manual methods results in four times as many broken legs, more than eight times as much bruising, and increased stress on the chickens.

• Breed for health rather than forcing rapid growth, and stop feeding drugs to chickens. Breed leaner, healthier, less aggressive birds instead of breeding the biggest, fattest birds possible, and stop feeding chickens antibiotics and other drugs for nontherapeutic purposes.

• Make all welfare standards transparent and verifiable. Any meaningful animal welfare program must be verified by announced and unannounced independent third-party audits, the guidelines for and results of which must be made available to the public through KFC’s Web site.

Source: http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/animals.asp