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It was in April 2001 that PETA introduced it's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, which focuses on the unethical treatment and slaughter of chickens for the fast food industry. By raising awareness, they aim to inform the public of the practices of fast food chains, primarily KFC, and are striving for KFC to change their policies and become aware of the ethical issues that have arisen in the slaughterhouses that they do business with.

PETA wishes for KFC to develop some animal welfare policies, in order to restrict, reduce and perhaps eliminate the unnecessary suffering that chickens are made to endure throughout their lives. The animal rights group know that they are not going to shut down KFC and turn everyone vegetarian, and so they wish to compromise and at least improve the standards of slaughter from the very abattoirs that KFC brand as "Suppliers of the year".

PETA asks KFC to adapt only five improved standards. These are as follows.

* Adopt "Animal Care Standards".
Right now, chickens on factory farms barely see the light of day. They live on the floor of a large shed with thousands of other chickens, so crammed in that they can barely move around. Shortly after birth, the birds' beaks are cut off with a hot blade to prevent pecking each other. Some birds die soon after from shock since it is such an excruciatingly painful ordeal. These sheds on the factory farms are never or rarely cleaned. The floors are inches think with feces of which the chickens have to live, sit and sleep in and the air is filled with ammonia, that they have no option but to breathe. When it comes to slaughter time, the chickens are stuffed into crates, as many as will fit. Birds used for breeding are starved. They lay and hatch eggs as often as they can, but feeding them costs money' so they receive very little food.

The new animal care standards would provide the chickens with more space to live in, meaning they would not peck at each other (and not need their beaks seared off), the sheds would be cleaned so they did not need to breathe the poisonous air, the birds used for reproduction would not be starved and the chickens would have some stimulation, so they did not go crazy with boredom.

* To switch to Controlled Atmosphere Killing.
This is a major point in the campaign. In the slaughterhouses, there are uncountable chickens who miss' having their throats cut and go on to be dumped into vats of boiling water fully conscious and able to feel pain. This is the feather removal process.

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