PETA, KFC reach deal on new slaughter method
By SONJA BARISIC
NORFOLK,
Va. (AP) - 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."
Langford said it will be
up to chicken suppliers to manage any costs of switching to
CAK. Langford said the change won't mean higher pricers for
restaurant customers because KFC sets its prices based on competition.
PETA is calling on KFC's
parent company in the United States, Yum Brands in Louisville,
Ky., to make the same changes as KFC Canada. The organization
already has held more than 12,000 protests at KFC restaurants
worldwide.
Yum Brands said in a statement
that it has strict animal welfare standards for its suppliers.
"We look forward to
learning whether our Canadian franchisee's action has any positive
benefit on the humane treatment of poultry," the statement
said.
KFC Canada also agreed to
add a vegan faux-chicken option to its menu, improve its animal-welfare
audit criteria to reduce the number of broken bones and other
injuries suffered by the birds, form an animal-welfare advisory
panel and urge its suppliers to adopt practices such as phasing-out
use of drugs that promote growth.