Cruelty in KFC Factory

Bangalore – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has obtained graphic video footage documenting the daily suffering of thousands of chickens on a factory farm that supplies fast-food restaurant chain KFC. PETA received this footage from a filmmaker who blew the whistle on Venkateshwara Hatcheries in Pune and exposed the farm’s abusive practices. PETA revealed the video footage for the first time at a news conference today in Bangalore. PETA founder and director Ingrid Newkirk, who grew up in India, travelled to Bangalore especially for this presentation. The following were among the abuses that PETA showed at the news conference, which can be viewed at PETAIndia.com:
• Chickens stuffed into overcrowded warehouses, pushing each other to reach their food• Birds whose weak legs crumple beneath them and are immobilized by leg deformities caused by breeding for weight and overfeeding • A barn littered with the carcasses of chickens who died from fatal diseases• Dirty and injured chickens who never receive medical attention• Chickens suffering at the hands of callous workers who neglect to observe even minimal standards of animal welfare
This footage directly contradicts KFC’s self-serving statement to the media that its supply farms strictly adhere to animal-welfare standards.PETA India is encouraging people to adopt a compassionate vegetarian diet or, at the very least, never to set foot in a joint like KFC. PETA India is also encouraging consumers to demand the closure of the only remaining KFC location in the country. The protest is part of an international campaign launched by PETA affiliates all over the world after nearly two years of failed negotiations with KFC’s parent company, Yum! Brands. On the anniversary of the Quit India movement, PETA India wrote to Mr Sandeep Kohli, MD, of Yum! Brands subsidiary Yum! Restaurants International, asking the company to close down the only remaining Indian KFC outlet, located in Bangalore, and quit India. ‘Each bird whom KFC puts into a box or a bucket had a miserable life and a frightening death’, says PETA Director Ingrid Newkirk. ‘People would be shocked to see our footage of a KFC supplier’s employee who walks through a barn, carelessly lighting lamps and letting flames fall on the terrified birds. The air inside these filthy barns reeks of ammonia fumes, making it difficult for the birds to breathe. No one with a grain of compassion should set foot in KFC.’Chickens are probably the most abused animals on the planet. They are inquisitive and interesting animals and are thought to be at least as intelligent as dogs or cats. When in their natural surroundings instead of factory farms, they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another, love their young and enjoy a full life of dust bathing, making nests and roosting in trees. Chickens have a natural lifespan of 10 to 12 years, but at the hands of KFC suppliers, they are slaughtered before they are 8 weeks old.‘KFC wants the public to believe that its chicken suppliers adhere to humane standards’, says Newkirk. ‘This footage tells the real story: Cruelty is the order of the day on KFC contract factory farms. KFC stands for cruelty, and we don’t need this cruel outlet in India.’
To view the factsheet, click here.
Pamela Anderson Speaks Out for Chickens
Whenever animals are in trouble, they can count on their number one “lifeguard,” Baywatch star Pam Anderson. After learning that KFC’s chickens often have their beaks seared off with hot blades and can be scalded alive in the slaughterhouse, Pam penned a letter to prizsm brandz, KFC’s parent company in her homeland of Canada, demanding that the company eliminate the worst abuses of chickens by its factory farm and slaughterhouse providers internationally.
Click here to read Pam’s letter to KFC
For more information, please visit PETA’s Web sites PETAIndia.com and KFCCruelty.com.

Tajinder Singh
KFC Campaign Coordinator
PETA India