KFC has come under fire recently over the way their chickens are raised and slaughtered. In early May 2005, Pamela Anderson rejected a lunch invitation from John Bitove, the head of KFC Canada. She says she has no interest in sitting down with him until KFC improves its treatment of the animals.

Anderson, former star of Baywatch and longtime animal advocate, is supporting a campaign by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

"Your attempt to spin your company's involvement in the crippling and drugging of millions of animals each year is a turn-off," Anderson writes.

"Claiming that 'everyone else is doing it' doesn't absolve your company of its own responsibilities."

Underlying the exchange is an increasingly bitter dispute between KFC and the world's largest animal rights group.

PETA is calling on Canadians to stop supporting KFC, claiming the company tolerates horrendous abuses of the chickens it serves at its 481 Canadian fast-food outlets.

"I'm asking people to boycott KFC until the company demands that its suppliers stop crippling chickens and scalding them alive," says Anderson. "No animals should have to suffer this way, whether they're cats or dogs or chickens."

The actress has narrated a new five-minute video, titled "Kentucky Fried Cruelty," that documents incidents of chicken abuse at KFC's factory farm and slaughterhouse suppliers. This undercover exposé details birds so crippled that they can't even walk, live birds forced into tanks of scalding-hot water while completely conscious and able to feel pain, and plant workers at Pilgrim's Pride Corp., a KFC supplier based in West Virginia, kicking, throwing and stomping on the live birds. The video can be viewed from PETA's KentuckyFriedCruelty.com website.

KFC misleading consumers

On April 21, 2005, PETA and a coalition of animal welfare groups and advocates filed a complaint accusing KFC Canada of misleading the public about its animal welfare policies. The co-signers included environmental scientist David Suzuki, named one of the “Ten Greatest Canadians” by the CBC; Farley Mowat, author of Sea of Slaughter and Woman in the Mist; renowned environmental activist Elizabeth May; and representatives of animal protection groups from across Canada.

"The average person who is going out and buying a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken does not know how KFC Canada treats its animals," says May.

The complaint was filed with the Competition Bureau, a Canadian government agency charged with ensuring fair competition among businesses. The activists contend that through statements in news releases and on its Web site, KFC Canada has attempted to gain an unfair advantage in the Canadian marketplace by deceiving consumers about its nonexistent animal welfare program. PETA filed a successful lawsuit, charging similarly deceitful statements, against KFC in the U.S. in July 2003. See kentuckyfriedcruelty.com for more information.

Canada's chicken industry

Canadian Press reports that Prof. Ian Duncan, an animal-welfare expert at the University of Guelph, has noted that PETA's claims do have some validity.

"Things are not quite as bad as PETA is making out, but it's certainly not all sweetness and light, it's not a bed of roses, for the chickens ... Most consumers assume that the animals that they are eating have fairly good lives and I'm afraid that's not always true," Duncan said in an interview.

And Mike Draper, chief inspector of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says that Canadian standards have fallen in recent years, according to a story in the Globe and Mail.

"You can't pick on KFC or anybody else," Mr. Draper said. "There are issues and I think everybody will admit that. There are issues about transport, loading and humane slaughter."

Canada has around 2,800 farms where broiler chickens are raised for meat. Unlike laying chickens used for eggs, broiler chickens are not kept in small cages but roam around large sheds that can house up to 50,000 birds. At the beginning, the young chicks have adequate space to move around, but by the end of the seven-week growing period they are under very crowded conditions. There are few regulations governing how chickens are kept, but various industry associations do have voluntary guidelines.

The slaughtering process is where some of the worst abuse takes place. The chickens are first transported to the slaughterhouses in small cages. Once there, they are dumped from the cages and snapped into metal shackles. The workers hang chickens so quickly (assembly-line style) that birds are frequently injured. Once hung upside-down, an automated process first dips their heads in a tub of electrified water, which is supposed to stun them, and then slits their necks.

The system doesn't always work and some chickens are fully conscious when they reach the scalding tank, which is filled with scalding-hot water for feather removal. Shackled birds that flap about and miss both the stun bath and the automated neck-cutters end up being scalded to death.

Britain has moved to a system that gases chickens, which is considered more humane. However, that process is more expensive.

References and more information:

Egging on KFC, Now, April 28 - May 4, 2005 nowtoronto.com

KFC spat not all clucking: experts, Globe and Mail, May 5, 2005 theglobeandmail.com

What Every Canadian Should Know : According to official sources, extreme suffering is inherent in the lives of farm animals

Fast Food Report , What's vegetarian at the fast food chains?