PETA, KFC Reach Deal on New Slaughter Method

by Jarrett Martineau | June 3, 2008 at 01:58 pm

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This PETA protest actually paid off: KFC has agreed to change their poultry slaughter methods from slitting the birds' throats to the apparently more humane replacement of the oxygen in their crates with inert gases. Either way, it's bye bye birdie, hello deep fryer.

Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisees in Canada have reached an agreement with animal rights activists to buy chickens for their restaurants from suppliers who use a more humane method of slaughter than throat slitting.
The Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it has ended a protest campaign as a result of the agreement. The deal with Vaughan, Ontario-based Priszm Income Fund affects all of Canada's roughly 750 KFC restaurants because Priszm acted on behalf of KFC franchisees in Canada, the group said. Priszm owns 485 restaurants.

"The ethical treatment of chickens is important to us, which is why we took proactive steps to work with PETA to enhance our animal welfare standards and policies," KFC Canada President Steve Langford said in a statement.

Under an agreement with PETA signed May 5, KFC Canada will phase in over eight years the use of "controlled-atmosphere killing" for all chickens bought for its restaurants. PETA calls that the "least-cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed."

The "CAK" method involves removing oxygen from crates that carry chickens and replacing it with inert gases such as argon or nitrogen, PETA spokesman Matt Prescott said Tuesday. The birds do not suffocate but die painlessly as they breathe the gases, he said.

"Right now, birds are dumped from their crates while conscious, snapped into shackles while conscious, have their throats cut while they're conscious and are dropped into a tank of scalding hot water," Prescott said. "With CAK, all of the abuses that chickens currently suffer are eliminated."