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Fast food gives in to PETA



Poultry Watch

from the gainesvilletimes.com

By Chris Hill




People for Ethical Treatment of Animals has selected KFC as the target of its most recent campaign against fast food companies.



PETA has waged campaigns against Wendy's, Burger King and McDonald's in the last four years. As a result, all companies have either changed, or promised to change, their production practices to treat food animals more humanely.



After each company agreed to these changes, PETA ended their campaigns, which had dubious titles such as Murder King (against Burger King).



This latest campaign targets Kentucky Fried Cruelty, and features posters of a blood-covered facsimile of Colonel Sanders.



These campaigns are derogatory and do nothing more than play on the emotions and ignorance of people not well versed on how their food is produced.



However, the poultry industry (and other meat animal industries as well) know they must meet their customers' demands.



It is difficult to change production practices, but the industry is doing the best it can. The interesting thing is that some KFC suppliers could have adopted more humane practices because they also supply the aforementioned companies.



Regarding KFC, PETA wants the following changes:



# Replace electric stunning with gassing as a killing method.



# Eliminate forced rapid growth of chickens.



# Increase space per bird in chicken houses.



# Add elements to chicken houses that resemble the birds' natural habitat.



# Make chicken catching automated.



Each of these requests, perhaps save the natural habitat, has been researched by various scientists and professionals. And some are in use today, particularly automated chicken catching.



The forced rapid growth issue is another matter. Chickens have been bred to grow to specific sizes in specific times. They are not forced to grow rapidly. Their growth pattern, save for influences of feed formulations, is in their genes.



Eventually, KFC likely will comply in some way to PETA's requests, just like the other fast food giants.



But I can't stop worrying about the future if food companies continue to bend to the pressure from an organization whose goal is ending the use of animals for human consumption.



Chris Hill is editor and production director of Gainesville-based Poultry Times and Poultry & Egg Marketing. He can be reached at (770) 536-2476 or chill@poultryandeggnews.com.



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