Cruelty in the KFC Slaughterhouse Exposed

From PETA
Posted: 7/21/2004
http://www.peta.org/feat/moorefield/
Watch the Video here

On July 20, 2004, PETA released the results of an undercover investigation into a KFC chicken slaughterhouse in Moorefield, W.Va., where workers were caught on video stomping birds, kicking them, and slamming them against floors and walls. Workers ripped the animals' beaks off, twisted their heads off, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, spray-painted their faces, and tied their legs together for "laughs."

The investigation was conducted at this location because it was the site of a KFC "Supplier of the Year" award ceremony, and PETA wanted to see the "best" that a KFC supplier had to offer. This slaughterhouse is run by Pilgrim's Pride, the second-largest chicken company in the U.S., after Tyson Foods.

Animal-welfare experts are in agreement that the cruelty at this KFC supplier is reprehensible. 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." Dr. Temple Grandin, perhaps the industry's leading farmed-animal welfare expert, writes, "The behavior of the plant employees was atrocious," and asserts that even though she has toured poultry facilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, France, the Netherlands, and the U.K., the video showed "the WORST employee behavior I have ever seen in a poultry plant." University of Guelph professor of applied ethology and university chair in animal welfare Dr. Ian Duncan writes, "This tape depicts scenes of the worst cruelty I have ever witnessed against chickens. … and it is extremely hard to accept that this is occurring in the United States of America." University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine graduate and avian veterinarian Dr. Laurie Siperstein-Cook writes, "In NO case can the behavior of the workers be considered a necessary or acceptable way of killing or stunning chickens."

Click here for addresses you can use to write to KFC officials and let them know that such abuse of animals cannot be tolerated. Politely urge them to adopt PETA's recommended animal-welfare plan. Please also write to Pilgrim's Pride officials and politely ask them to adopt controlled-atmosphere killing of chickens as a way of eliminating such abuses in the future:

Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, Chair
Pilgrim's Pride Corporation
110 S. Texas St.
Pittsburg, TX 75686
903-855-1000
903-856-7505 (fax)

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