Group Will Challenge Yum! Execs to Require Suppliers to Stop Abuse
For Immediate Release:
May 16, 2012
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Louisville, Ky. -- Big companies' annual meetings have had their share of confrontations recently, and KFC parent company Yum! Brands is about to join the fray. But unlike most cases, this brouhaha isn't about the CEO's huge salary—it's because he is too cheap to spare millions of birds a painful death. A representative of PETA—which owns stock in Yum!—will ask company officials why they still permit their suppliers to confine chickens by the thousands to filthy sheds and use an archaic slaughter method that causes the animals to sustain broken bones as a result of being slammed into shackles, have their throats cut while they're still conscious, and be scalded to death in defeathering tanks. PETA is asking KFC to make basic animal welfare improvements, including requiring its suppliers to switch to a less cruel slaughter method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK) that is recommended by the company's own animal welfare advisers and would eliminate the above abuses:
When: Thursday, May 17, 9 a.m.
Where: Yum! Conference Center, 1900 Col. Sanders Ln., Louisville
"At a time when corporations are scrambling to appear ethical and care about social issues, KFC is stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to animal welfare," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "KFC executives are too cheap to shell out the extra couple of pennies a meal that would mean an end to the suffering of billions of chickens."
With CAK, oxygen is removed and slowly replaced with a
nonpoisonous gas that puts the birds "to sleep" while they are still
in their transport crates. This method is already in use by companies in the
United States and around the world, including KFC's Canadian suppliers. Those
that have made the switch report improved worker safety, higher-quality products,
and increased yield. The upgrade—which would reduce the suffering of the nearly
1 billion chickens killed for KFC every year—along with several other basic
animal welfare improvements, would add no more than a few cents to the price of
a KFC meal.
For more information, please visit PETA's website KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.
