KFC Canada promises to improve chicken welfare

the deal obliges KFC Canada to begin buying from suppliers who use gas to kill their chickens painlessly, considered to be the least cruel method of slaughter.

The company is also promising to insist on other "animal-welfare friendly'' measures relating to how the birds are kept, including a maximum on crowding and phasing out non-essential growth-hormones and other drugs.

Customers of the popular restaurant chain will also be able to order a vegan "chicken'' item, according to the deal that followed almost seven months of at-times "sticky'' closed-door negotiations.

"It's going to drastically reduce the suffering of chickens in slaughterhouses and also . . . improve the living conditions for animals while they're on the farm,'' Matt Prescott, PETA's assistant director of corporate affairs, said from Norfolk, Va.

"It appears as though our campaign affected the bottom line to the point where the company finally had enough,'' Prescott said.

"That said, I also believe that KFC in Canada is genuinely concerned about animal welfare.''

While the anti-KFC campaign will now end in this country, PETA said it would continue in the U.S., the U.K. and other countries. However, it is hoping to persuade Yum Brands, which owns KFC outlets in the United States, to follow the Canadian lead.

"With KFC Canada now doing exactly what we want KFC in the U.S. to do, our members and activists will be even more energetic and invigorated about going after KFC in other countries,'' Prescott said.

"All we want is for KFC worldwide to do what KFC Canada has done.''