Week 10 - KFC Canada gives in to PETA's demands after 5 years

KFC Canada is the only KFC to give into PETAs demands to stop the cruel slaughtering of their chickens. Its been over 5 years since the beginning of PETAs protest against the fast food giant KFC. I mean KFC is a huge chain -- it's popular not only in the US but in Europe and even in South Africa when I went this past spring break.

PETAs protests and boycott of KFC was to stop the worst abuses of their chickens such as "scalding birds to death, slitting their throats while they're still conscious, and drugging and breeding them to grow so large that they cripple beneath their own weight."

PETA has gotten KFC Canada, which is owned by a different company than the KFC restaurants in other countries, to make a number of changes as outlined in their new animal welfare plan. Below you will find the changes KFC is making to drastically improve the lives of their chickens:

• Phase in purchases of 100 percent of its chickens from suppliers that use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK)—the least cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed. KFC Canada is the first major restaurant chain to commit to phasing in the exclusive purchasing of chicken meat from CAK slaughterhouses.
• Add a vegan faux-chicken item to the menu of all 461 Priszm-owned KFC restaurants (more than half of all the KFCs in Canada).
• Improve its animal welfare audit criteria to reduce the number of broken bones and other injuries suffered by birds.
• Urge its suppliers to adopt better practices, including improved lighting, lower stocking density and ammonia levels, and a phaseout of growth-promoting drugs and breeding practices that painfully cripple chickens.
• Form an animal welfare advisory panel to monitor the changes and recommend further advancements.

KUDOS to KFC Canada for being a pioneer and leading the way for other KFCs and fast food chains to adopt an animal welfare plan.

As an FYI: PETA is still boycotting other KFC fast-food chains around the world until they make similar changes.

Week 5 - I love chicken but I want to eat NORMAL chickens...

OK so out of all of the different animals to eat chicken is by far the one I eat the most. I love chicken. I have it at least 5-6 times a week.... multiply that times 52 and that means over 300 servings of chicken per year. I am pretty sure other people share the same love for chicken as I do -- that's why it is no surprise that 90% of the all the animals slaughtered are chickens. That's a lot of chicken.

So you can understand why I am so absolutely disgusted by techniques used by factory farmers to grow and plump up chickens that eventually end up on my dinner plate.

The broiler chicken industry, which is comprised of only 60 companies, produces over 6 billion chickens a year for slaughter -- that is one chicken for every single person -- CRAZY. These chickens are selectively bread and genetically altered in order to create fatter thighs and breasts. The effects of this are chickens that are so heavy they cannot support their weight, making it hard for them to stand -- let alone walk! These birds are bred to grow at an astonishingly unhealthy rate.

Lets put it this way, if we were raised the same way these chickens are raised we would be over 300lbs by the time we are 3 yrs old. 300 lbs!!!!! That is absolutely disgusting.

1) I think that subjecting these chickens to these growth hormones is inhumane.

2) Why would you want to eat a chicken that has been subjected to such hormones and such messed up treatment? It definitely cannot be good for your health to eat these chickens.

MORAL OF THE STORY -- if you eat chickens make sure they are organic and free range chickens. Not only is it good on your conscious, it is good for your health!