News Releases

CAGED ACTIVISTS PROTEST AGAINST KFC CRUELTY

Company Lags Behind Rivals, Refuses to Prevent Abuse of Chickens

For Immediate Release:

August 10, 2012

Phnom Penh — Confined to a cage and holding signs that read, "Confined, Tortured, Scalded: Boycott KFC," members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia will sit outside a KFC restaurant in the capital to protest the company's refusal to adopt basic animal welfare standards.

Date: Monday, August 13

Time: 12 noon sharp

Place: Outside KFC at Nº 93E0 Norodom Blvd., Chaktomuk quarter, Daun Penh district, Phnom Penh

Birds who are raised and killed for KFC have their beaks cut off with a hot blade—a cruel practice that makes eating extremely painful for the animals. They are also drugged and bred to grow so large that they often become crippled from supporting the weight of their own bodies. At slaughterhouses, birds' legs are slammed into shackles—a procedure that often results in broken legs and wings. Birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. Undercover investigations of KFC suppliers in Australia, England, Germany, and India have exposed crippled chickens living in filthy, crowded conditions.

KFC refuses to require even the most basic standards of care, including the following:

• Replacing electric stunning and throat-cutting with "controlled-atmosphere killing" (Experts agree that controlled-atmosphere killing causes much less suffering than KFC's current method.)
• Breeding chickens for health rather than forcing their rapid growth by feeding drugs to them (KFC suppliers should breed leaner, healthier, less aggressive birds instead of breeding the largest birds possible, and they should stop feeding chickens antibiotics and other drugs for purposes that aren't therapeutic.)
• Making simple changes in the way that birds are raised (Such changes would include lowering ammonia concentrations in barns, improving lighting conditions, and providing chickens with more living space.)

"Chickens who are condemned to be served in KFC's buckets suffer a fate worse than death—they are tormented every minute of their short lives, right up to and including the moment of their inhumane slaughter," says PETA Asia Director Jason Baker. "We are urging people who want to end this suffering simply to stop eating at KFC."

For more information, please visit PETAAsiaPacific.com.

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