KFC Supplier Accused of Animal Cruelty

[PfcHammer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/business/20chicken.html

KFC Supplier Accused of Animal Cruelty
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
Published: July 20, 2004

An animal rights group involved in a long legal dispute with Kentucky Fried Chicken about the treatment of the 700 million chickens it buys each year is to release a videotape today showing slaughterhouse workers for one supplier jumping up and down on live chickens, drop-kicking them like footballs and slamming them into walls, apparently for fun.

After officials of the KFC Corporation saw the videotape yesterday, they said they would seek dismissal of the workers, inspect the slaughterhouse more often and end their relationship if the cruelty was repeated. The company that owns the slaughterhouse, the Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, the country's second-largest poultry processor, said it was "appalled" by the tape.

Animal rights groups have long complained that sheer malicious behavior - on top of the expected confinement and bloodletting - goes on in slaughter plants, but this is the first time such graphic proof has been produced. The tape was taken surreptitiously by an investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who worked from October 2003 to May 2004 at a Pilgrim's Pride plant in Moorefield, W.Va., that won KFC's "Supplier of the Year" award in 1997.

KFC and its parent, Yum Brands, have repeatedly committed themselves to a promise that all suppliers would treat animals humanely. Yesterday, a spokeswoman for KFC said the company "wouldn't tolerate the type of behavior in the video."

[The Stranger]

1. I would love to see 20 posts commending PETA for doing what no one else

would do, no one else could do. I would even settle for two or three. But I know that would be asking way too much. Instead, I know I can expect nearly ever time to see 20 posts complaining about any number of other things PETA supports, upset because PETA confronts sheople in an attempt to dislodge them from their massive and profound denial.

[ret5hd]

2. no shit.

[pennylane100]

4. Here's my commendation

I think they do a great job. Some of their tactics are extreme but it seems that is what it takes for people to know how badly some companies in this country treat animals.

[roguevalley]

26. I don't care what PETA does if it makes an animal's life easier. I am so

sickened by this. I jotted a note to Pilgrim's Pride and KFC and haven't checked to see if I've gotten some chicken shit canned response back. PETA put someone into harm's way to help animals. He might not have been physically threatened but he has to live with what he say his whole life. God bless him.

God bless PETA for this. I wish they would go after Tazer. They tested their new nazi tool on a live pig and five anaethetized dogs:
tazed the pig 48 times and the dogs 200 times each. May they rot in hell forever.

[GeronimoSkull]

28. Tazer

Do you have any links about that?

[PfcHammer]

30. As Police Use of Tasers Rises, Questions Over Safety Increase

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/18/national/18TASER.html?position=&pagewanted=print&position=

As Police Use of Tasers Rises, Questions Over Safety Increase

But Taser has scant evidence for that claim. The company's primary safety studies on the M26, which is far more powerful than other stun guns, consist of tests on a single pig in 1996 and on five dogs in 1999. Company-paid researchers, not independent scientists, conducted the studies, which were never published in a peer-reviewed journal. Taser has no full-time medical director and has never created computer models to simulate the effect of its shocks, which are difficult to test in human clinical trials for ethical reasons.

"I would urge the U.S. government to conduct those studies," Dr. Podgorski said. "Shocking a couple of pigs and dogs doesn't prove anything."

Three years later, the company hired Dr. Stratbucker and Dr. Wayne McDaniel, an electrical engineer, for an animal test at the University of Missouri. The scientists shocked five anesthetized dogs about 200 times with the M26. The dogs did not suffer cardiac arrest, although one animal had changes in its heartbeat, according to a report.

[GeronimoSkull]

33. Ugh

thanks for the link

[curse10]

10. that's par for the course

unfortunately PETA is misunderstood by many, including many users on this board.

We haven't had a deluge of PETA threads recently- but man, you really get to see the ugly side of some people. Calling PETA terrorists and crap like that.

[ott]

25. Most complaints I've heard about PETA ...

... don't even apply. They're too often based on rumored lies or the ALF.

It's all about denial. If PETA is extreme then it's OK to support the slaughter of innocents for a dietary preference.

[SaveElmer]

3. I don't always agree with PETA...

But they do alot of good things behind the scenes that don't get publicity. And, it's healthy in a Democracy to have groups at the fringe to keep everyone else from getting complacent!

There's one!

[kysrsoze]

21. I'm glad they brought this to light - hate to see cruelty toward animals

I haven't eaten veal since seeing how they're raised. I'm afraid to watch how chickens are treated, but did see a truck last weekend stacked with chickens, each sitting in a 10-inch square, 8-inch high cage.

I'm not a vegetarian, but the meat industry doesn't have to be so cruel. Hoping to make more money soon so I can start eating free-range food.

[Triana]

5. Good for PETA...

...I don't always agree with their tactics, but I CANNOT STAND to see animals mistreated like this and am glad they're on the case.

That said, this type of thing is just one reason I'm vegetarian. I will not contribute to it knowingly or otherwise just to eat meat.

[lazarus]

16. FYI

millions of field animals are killed every year while your vegetables are being harvested.

So you're contributing to the deaths of animals regardless.

[0007]

17. Have been a vegetarian for 50 years and CANNOT STAND

to see or hear of any animal suffering needlessly.

PETA is doing a good job in a fucked up world.

[amazona]

29. sadly as poster 16 pointed out...

...clearing fields for agriculture results in denial of habitat and kills many millions of animals and plants of all species. You can see wildlife and rare birds in cattle country. You won't see them in soy fields. All wild animals and wild plants in an area are wiped out when growing soy and grain. There is no eating without killing. There is just a choice to face the real world or to live in a world of pretend.

As far as the KFC news story: If the PETA film is real and not one of their many publicity stunts, I hope the proper action is taken. My partner goes into many chicken plants as a contractor and he has never seen anything like this, so I'm going to retain a little bit of skepticism about who instigated this and what really happened. People are working in these plants, and the profit margin on a chicken is literally pennies. Workers in a chicken plant simply don't have time or interest in playing football with chickens. If there are some bad apples in one plant, by all means fire them and prosecute them for animal cruelty. But don't condemn an entire industry.

[GeronimoSkull]

32. Bad apples?

Maybe this is a special case (I would like to hope so), but aside from what this investigation uncovered, the standard acknowledged practices of this industry seem pretty cruel to me. Sickeningly so.

http://www.kfccruelty.com/

[jdj]

34. Speaking of cattle country, that's a load of horseshit.

A cleared field for grazing is the same as a field growing wheat and soy.

I've lived in both "cattle" and farm country, actually there is alot of overlap and never heard them presented as separate entities before.

By the way, I live right next to a soy field, which contains a small pond, visited by a great blue heron I get to see at least once a week or so. It usually makes my day. It's rare to drive anywhere around here and see fields that are not bordered by forests and that don't contain at least one pond.

I actually don't want to hi-jack this thread, but there are a hell of alot more trees standing here in soy country, not to mention more wildlife, than I ever saw where I lived next to a dairy farm and passed cattle ranch after ranch on my daily bike route.

The problem is factory farming, which is animals=money, period, and I believe that someone who spent 9 months working at one of these slaughterhouses would be more qualified to witness to this than someone who occasionally enters them, probably in the daytime.. I've worked off-shifts in plants enough to know that all kinds of garbage goes on in those hours despite managements most concerted efforts (timed cycles, etc) to control it. I don't want to argue with you, because I see from your post you are firmly entrenched in your black and white pretend world. But I did think I would put my two cents in from the real one.

[joeybee12]

6. KFC and Pilgrim Pride might have known about it, but did nothing...

...only when slime like them are caught do they try to act like they're doing something.

[burrowowl]

14. I tend to agree with you

Sweden has adopted some good laws re treatment of farm animals. Of course farms hardly exist in the U$ only factory offal producers.

[RebelOne]

7. Bravo, PETA!

I love to hear about animal abusers being punished.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. What a bunch of sick fucks....

How desensitized must you be to engage in this type of behavior? I would love to see their response if someone tried to drop kick their pet pooch or cat, or tried to slam them into a wall.

Damn, it's shit like this that makes me glad to be a vegetarian.

:grr:

[area51]

18. "What a bunch of sick fucks...."

Agreed. And psychologists have said that it's not uncommon for abusers to graduate from animal abuse to human abuse. Witness Bush II blowing up frogs w/firecrackers and now....

[colonel odis]

9. congrats to peta. i, too, don't always agree with them,

but getting out word about something like this is important.

fuck kfc, along with their miserable new advertising campaign.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

11. Great.

Pilgrim's Pride runs a Serial Killer Training Camp. Superb. I will sleep better knowing that.

[AngryAmish]

12. They call me Wreckin' Ball

Cause I'm the baddest of them all.

[Stockholm]

13. Here is a link to some of the pictures (graphic)

from a Swedish Newspaper Aftonbladet. It shows the people throwing chickens against the wall, jumping on them and the obligatory smiley face...

Sick puppies

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,507569,00.html

[Piperay]

15. Cheers

to PETA, often I cringe at their tactics but overall I still think they do more good than not.

[Kool Kitty]

19. Hear, hear!

I agree. In these types of cases, I think the punishment should fit the crime. Slam these bastards against the wall, break them in half, spit tobacco in their mouths and eyes, spray-paint their faces, etc.-while they are still alive, like the chickens. Whatever they did to these poor birds. Thank you, PETA, for exposing this.

On edit: I guess this makes me a barbaric monster. I'm sorry, but this makes me furious. Between this and the killing of the ducks (in another thread), I just don't understand why people do these things. What kind of satisfaction do they get from brutalizing animals? (I wrote that the same should be done to them. Which is wrong, of course. A long term in jail would be better.) But it just makes me so angry.

[GeronimoSkull]

36. I don't blame you

Torturing a creature that has no chance of fighting back is sick, sick, sick. I don't know what the punishment should be but I feel where you're coming from.

[VolcanoJen]

20. Kick!

:mod:

[DeadHead67]

24. KFC food stinks anyway, It's human abuse in and of itself :

The inherent abuse of animals in the meat 'industry' is incomprehensible. I eat poultry and fish, but try not to think about where it comes from. I saw the tapes of what went on at Pilgrims Pride, and will no doubt think about it the next time I try to eat bird carcass. Maybe I'll go vege AGAIN. Nonetheless, EVERYONE should take a minute or two and Email KFC and Pilgrims Pride and inform them that you will NEVER use their products AGAIN. That's the only thing semi-conscious assholes like that understand when you speak $$$$ to them.:grr: :puke:

[Heddi]

22. I don't agree with PETA wrt many of their campaigns .... BUT

I think that the highlighting of animal abuse cases is really really great on their part, and I'm glad (?) that this news came to light. Question mark because I guess one can't be 'glad' about the abuse of animals, but I'm glad in the sense that this isn't being allowed to go unchallenged anymore.

I do, however, disagree with PETA members handing out vile literature to children at playgrounds telling them that mommy is a murderer if she wears fur (with a cartoon picture of 'mommy' hacking away at a cartoon bunny), or leaflets that discourage kids from drinking milk. I don't agree with them using a picture of that poor boy mauled by a shark in their ads (without the family's permission), or capatilizing on other's diseases or disabilities (without their permission) to get a point across (see: "Got Prostate Cancer" ad with a picture of Rudi Gulliani to highlight the dangers of a meat-based diet).

My husband and I are by no means vegitarians. However, we eat a very meat-free diet and do so by choice--not by cooersion, or guilt, or a feeling of sanctimony, or for religious or even ethical reasons. We do it because, well, I don't feel the need to eat meat for 3 meals a day, every day, including snacks. That's just me. But I do like meat occasionally, and can never see myself TOTALLY giving up eating meat.

Just to get that part out of the way :)

I wish that more attention was given to the plight of animal welfare (not rights). I wish that animals were afforded more protection under the law, and that those who willfully abuse animals, either through sheer lack of empathy, negligance, etc, should be punished more severely.

How often do we hear stories of "animal collectors" who may be well being people who got overwhelmed, or may be mentally ill and got overwhelmed, or may have obsessive-compulsive disorder and got overwhelmed, and the authorities have to remove hundreds of festering, starving, neglected animals that live in squalor? It happens quite frequently. MIlls for breeding animals are often the most deplorable places you'll ever see (which is why I'll never buy a "purebred" animal. Pound puppies, kitties, etc, are just as good as a blue-blood dog that costs $5,000 and was most likely born to a mother dog who is forced to breed as often as she can in squalid conditions).

Animal abuse is horrid. Absolutely horrid. And the penalties are hardly a detriment to someone who has the capacity to willfully and knowingly abuse an animal, or create conditions that foster abuse. A $500 penalty means nothing. A 1-year suspended sentence means nothing. Increase the penalties, increase the jailtime (Hell---most people who are convicted of animal abuse/cruelty NEVER see a jail cell).

It has been documented that people who find joy in abusing, torturing, and killing animals often wind their way up the food chain and find joy in abusing, torturing, and killing humans. Its an awful cycle.

I may not agree with PETA 100% of the time. But I do think that this is important for Americans to see. Just as important as it is for Americans to see dead and dying soldiers and iraqi's and sudandese. We must know what the consequences of our actions are. You wanna eat meat? Know that this is what happens in a slaughterhouse. DEMAND that animals be treated more humanely before and during slaughter. THere's no need to treat animals horribly just because their final destination will be our lower colon. Just as we must know that our desire to rid the world of 'terrorism' often results in injury and death to many innocent people, who are just as innocent of being 'terrorist' than I am, or you are.

[GeronimoSkull]

23. Link to the video:

KFC's House of Horror
http://www.peta.org/feat/moorefield/

[Arugula Latte]

27. Good for PETA

This is sickening.

[jdj]

31. 9 months in hell...

I cannot imagine.

Someone also video'd the same abuses at a Tyson plant for PETA. In this worker's experience they were using dry ice to blow the chickens up, and they were sometimes putting them through the scalding machine that removes their feathers before their throats had been cut.

I don't eat chicken any more, because I live within a couple miles of a Tyson plant, and every day I have to see the semi trucks loaded with the chickens going to Tyson, and these are some of the sickest and filthiest animals I have ever seen. Most have no feathers on the lower part of their body beneath their wings; all you can see is red raw skin. What feathers they do have are yellow from urine and filth. Last week I was behind a chicken truck and I looked up just in time to see a chicken in one of the cages fall over dead. I guess it got to hot, it just fell over on it's back. The only way I console myself having to see these trucks every day is knowing that this is the first breath of fresh air these chickens have ever had, and that they will be dead soon. They are raised in closed houses, well, their life until this point must be sheer hell.

AND there is a Pilgrim's Pride plant just down the road, I always wondered what they made, now I know.

I commend greatly the person who spent this nine months in hell to get this footage. My company cleans the Tyson plant, and I don't want to go there for any reason, I am always scared they will send me there. One worker they sent there threw up the entire night. Oh, and they start the workers out at $7.00 an hour, which is obscene.

PETA really is doing great work running stings on these places. I contacted them about the sick chickens I was seeing, but that was before I drove around in the countryside out here and realized just how many chicken houses there are, they are all private, and not regulated, I'm sure.

[Matilda]

35. Kick!