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When an investigator notified management of live birds being boiled alive, they were told that roughly 40 birds per shift was acceptable' to keep the production line moving. This is a sickening prospect.

Controlled Atmosphere killing would simply mean that it would be ensured the birds were dead and rendered completely numb to pain when they are slaughtered. It would prevent them from going through having their throats slit and being bled out while conscious. It would also avoid abuse from factory workers.

*To switch to mechanized gathering.
Farm factory and slaughterhouse workers can be some of the worst in the world. They are paid by the number of chickens they can transport and so of course, they are going to make sure that is as many as possible. Uncountable chickens are crammed into transport crates, making conditions unbearable and inhumane. Workers have been videoed abusing the birds in unimaginable ways throwing them against walls, ripping their heads off with their hands, spray painting their eyes and faces, spitting tobacco in their eyes and stomping on them. All this in the name of their own sadistic entertainment.

Mechanized gathering would eliminate a great deal of human contact with the birds, and prevent any of this abuse from happening.

* Breed chickens for health.
Factory farms pump drugs into the birds in view to making them top heavy along with rapid growth. This leaves uncountable birds crippled, spending their lives on the floor, unable to stand. Their wings and legs break under their own body weight. These unnaturally deformed birds are then slaughtered for human consumption - meaning that people then take on the same drugs. If they do this to a chicken, what willo they eventually cause in humans..?

PETA asks that they breed chickens at the natural rate, meaning healthier, happier chickens. Subsequently this would also mean larger chickens too and healthier food for people.

*Make all welfare standards verifiable.
The easiest request - for KFC to allow public access to records and verification of their animals welfare standards. It would allow the authorities to audit the suppliers and confirm that the standards were being adhered to.

So, why does the campaign go on? KFC, although claiming it has adopted standards in the best interests of the birds, have not. Their own animal welfare committee has had numerous members resign from frustration, due to the public outright lying from KFC. Two years after KFC promised to adopt and monitor its welfare policies, investigators for PETA filmed sadistic abuse, top heavy breeding and overall no changes whatsoever in the way the suppliers conduct the gathering and slaughter.

Although KFC assure the public that the welfare committee have met and have developed guidelines and audits for the suppliers, and that they are taking the welfare of the birds supplied to them very seriously, three of their welfare committee are executives at Pilgrim's Pride, Tyson Foods and Gold Krist - 3 top chicken suppliers. Therefore this means nothing is going to be done to ensure animal welfare.

PETA have achieved some success however with the restaurant chain. In Canada, KFC agreed to "dramatically reduce the suffering of the millions of chickens killed for Canadian KFC's". Their campaigns continue in other countries including the US.

Learn more about this author, Kate Manning.
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