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For years, KFC executives assured PETA that they intended to "raise the bar" on animal welfare, but to date, KFC has done nothing to end the most egregious cruelty in the chicken industry.

PETA has asked consumers to boycott KFC at least until the company takes some simple steps to ensure that the chickens raised for its restaurants are treated less cruelly.

First and foremost, PETA and independent animal welfare experts want KFC to demand that its suppliers implement a kinder method of chicken slaughter: "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK). This method puts chickens "to sleep" by removing the oxygen from their environment and replacing it with an inert gas, like nitrogen or argon. According to Dr. Ian Duncan, who is North America's leading expert on bird welfare and a former animal welfare advisor for KFC, CAK is "the most stress-free, humane method of killing poultry ever developed."

In addition to switching to CAK, members of KFC's advisory panel recommended that it take the following steps to reduce animal suffering:

* Adopt the "Animal Care Standards" program, which covers issues such as ammonia concentration, lighting conditions, and living space in chicken sheds. It also prohibits intentional starvation and states that birds must be provided with mental and physical stimulation.

* Use mechanized chicken catching, which causes less bruising and fewer broken bones.

* Breed leaner, healthier, less aggressive birds instead of breeding the biggest, fattest birds possible.

* Stop feeding chickens antibiotics and other drugs for nontherapeutic purposes.

* Make welfare standards transparent and verifiable. A meaningful animal welfare program must be verified by announced and unannounced independent third-party audits, the results of which must be made available to the public.

Even though the aforementioned changes were all recommended by KFC's own animal welfare advisors, KFC has steadfastly refused to make the improvements. Five of KFC's animal welfare advisors have resigned in the past two years because of the company's lack of progress. According to Dr. Duncan, "[p]rogress was extremely slow, which is why I resigned. It was always going to be happening later. They just put off actually creating standards. ... I suspect that upper management didn't really think that animal welfare was important."

Dr. Adele Douglass, another former advisor to KFC, revealed that "[KFC] never had any meetings. They never asked any advice, and then they touted to the press that they had this animal-welfare advisory committee. I felt like I was being used."

KFC's unwillingness to treat animals better is not only unethical, it's bad business. Farmed-animal welfare is becoming an increasingly integral part of the agriculture polices of most developed nations. The European Union is requiring its members to implement newer, kinder standards, and the U.S. industry is changing rapidly. McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's all took steps to improve the treatment of animals used for their restaurants following previous PETA campaigns and pressure from concerned individuals.

PETA will continue to campaign against KFC until the company takes significant steps to lessen animal suffering. Although PETA actively encourages people to go vegetarian, it supports any action that will help reduce animal suffering. Once people understand that animals have some interests that must be protected, it is one small step to realizing that there is no good reason to eat them at all.

Learn more about this author, Heather Moore.
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