Whose Skin Are You In??

Watch PETA's newest video, which exposes the cruelty that goes into every piece of leather, fur, wool, and exotic skins used for "fashion."

Source: Peta

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

KFC suppliers cram birds into huge waste-filled factories, breed and drug them to grow so large that they can’t even walk, and often break their wings and legs. At slaughter, the birds’ throats are slit and they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water—often while they are still conscious. It would be illegal for KFC to abuse dogs, cats, pigs, or cows in these ways.

KFC’s own animal welfare advisors have asked the company to take steps to eliminate these abuses, but KFC refuses to do so. Many advisors have now resigned in frustration.

Please join Pamela Anderson, Sir Paul McCartney, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Rev. Al Sharpton, and countless other kind people worldwide by not eating at KFC.

Why KFC?

• The roughly 1 billion chickens killed each year for KFC's buckets are crammed by the tens of thousands into excrement-filled sheds that stink of ammonia fumes.
• The birds’ legs and wings often break because they’re bred to be too top-heavy and because workers carelessly shove them into transport crates and shackles.
• Chickens’ throats are slit and the animals are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers, often while they are still conscious and able to feel pain.
• KFC lets frustrated factory-farm and slaughterhouse workers handle live birds, so many of the animals end up being sadistically abused. At a KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were documented tearing the heads off live birds, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and violently stomping on them. This was discovered more than two years after KFC promised PETA that it was taking animal welfare seriously.
• KFC hides behind its Animal Welfare Advisory Council, even though five members of the council have resigned in frustration. One of them, Adele Douglass, told the Chicago Tribune 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.”

How KFC Can Clean Up Its Act

PETA wants KFC to adopt the animal welfare program developed by five members of its own animal welfare board. These advisors are the world’s top poultry experts; they advise the meat industry in North America and Europe and believe that KFC can—and should—adopt them. KFC has yet to do any of the following:

• Adopt the “Animal Care Standards” program. This would lower the amount of ammonia in the air in factory farms, improve the living spaces and lighting in chicken sheds, prohibit the intentional starving of breeding birds, and ensure that birds are provided with mental and physical stimulation.
• Switch to controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK). This would prevent live birds in slaughterhouses from being abused by workers, having their throats slit, or being scalded while they were still conscious. CAK would also improve conditions for workers and decrease contamination levels in chickens’ flesh.
• Switch to mechanized chicken gathering. This would drastically reduce the number of broken bones and painful bruising that birds endure when factory-farm workers carelessly throw them into transport crates.
• Breed for health rather than rapid growth, and stop feeding drugs to chickens. This would reduce the rate at which birds suffer painful, crippling diseases and injuries, such as broken legs, heart attacks, and lung failures.
• Make all welfare standards transparent and verifiable. This would simply ensure that the animal welfare program is being adhered to through announced and unannounced independent audits (the results of which must be made available to the public through KFC’s Web site).

Undercover investigation

“[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.”
—Dr. Adele Douglass, former animal welfare advisor to KFC, Chicago Tribune

Every time undercover investigators enter the facilities of KFC’s suppliers, they find hideous abuse and suffering. At one KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in West Virginia, workers were caught tearing birds’ heads off, ripping them apart, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and throwing them against walls—all while the birds were still conscious and able to feel pain. This is in stark contrast to KFC’s claim that it “only deal[s] with suppliers who promise to maintain our high standards and commitment to animal welfare.”

Some of the largest and most respected newspapers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia have written scathing editorials decrying the conditions at these facilities, and customers have spoken with their wallets, turning away from KFC in droves as they learn about the hideous ways that the more than 850 million chickens who end up in KFC’s buckets each year are abused.

The investigations detailed below prove that KFC desperately needs to adopt the recommendations of its animal welfare advisors (five of whom have quit in recent years after KFC refused to listen to their advice) to eliminate at least the very worst abuses that chickens suffer for KFC.

In the United States

Tyson's Dirty Deeds Exposed During New Undercover InvestigationTyson's Dirty Deeds Exposed During New Undercover Investigation A PETA investigation into two Tyson Foods plants exposes disgusting conditions that the KFC supplier does not want you to see.

A PETA undercover investigation at a Missouri slaughterhouse owned by KFC “Supplier of the Year” George’s, Inc. documented that live birds were being thrown by workers, scalded alive, and injured by broken transport cages.

Pilgrim's Pride InvestigationWorkers at a former KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in West Virginia were caught tearing birds apart, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, stomping on them, and throwing them against walls—all while the birds were still conscious.

COK Perdue InvestigationWorkers at a KFC-supplier slaughterhouse in Maryland were documented punching frenzied, terrified birds and spiking them like footballs, among other sadistic acts of cruelty.

COK InvestigationMaryland-based animal rights group Compassion Over Killing documented the entire 45-day cycle of a KFC chicken shed. Check out a week-by-week snapshot into these horrible conditions and the drug-induced, crippling injuries caused by one of KFC’s top suppliers.

Tyson InvestigationA whistleblower at a Tyson slaughterhouse testified that birds intentionally were scalded to death, were blown apart by makeshift firecrackers, and had their legs broken by workers to fit them into slaughter-line shackles. Tyson is KFC’s number one supplier.

Tortured by TysonA PETA undercover investigation found workers who were ripping live animals’ heads off and shoddy, outdated slaughter machines cutting open birds’ legs, wings, and chest cavities at this Tyson plant in Alabama.

Abroad

UK ArticleKFC United Kingdom exposed! Journalist Martin Coutts wrote a scathing article for the Sunday Mirror—one of the largest newspapers in the world, with nearly 5 million readers—that detailed a lengthy undercover investigation conducted at one of KFC’s largest U.K. suppliers: “Distressed and Dying in a Cramped Shed … Nobody Does Chicken Like KFC,” announced the headline.

Australia InvestigationKFC Australia exposed! Crippled birds were found among the corpses of other animals in barren, windowless sheds during an undercover investigation into KFC supplier Ingham’s. See the rescue of 20 chickens by Animal Liberation Victoria from a KFC supplier outside Melbourne.

New Zealand InvestigationKFC New Zealand exposed! A group of New Zealand activists went to a KFC supplier farm and found crippled chickens everywhere, including those who had slowly died of dehydration after their crippled condition left them unable to reach water. Five chickens were rescued.

Germany InvestigationKFC Germany exposed! Investigators at this KFC supplier in Germany found 38,000 chickens who were forced to live in a crowded barn covered in their own excrement and were given steady doses of antibiotics to keep them alive through conditions so filthy that the birds would have otherwise died.

India InvestigationKFC India exposed! An undercover investigation of a KFC supplier in India found chickens stuffed into extremely crowded warehouses littered with chicken carcasses, birds immobilized by crippling leg deformities caused by cruel breeding practices, sick and injured chickens who never received medical attention, and chickens suffering at the hands of callous workers who neglected to observe even minimal standards of animal welfare.

Disgusted? We don’t blame you. What KFC does to chickens is enough to make any kind person’s stomach churn.

Undercover Investigation

Thousands of Chickens Tortured by KFC Supplier

In July 2004, PETA revealed the results of an investigation into a KFC-supplying slaughterhouse in Moorefield, West Virginia, where workers were caught on video stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against floors and walls. Workers also ripped the animals' beaks off, twisted their heads off, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, spray-painted their faces, and squeezed their bodies so hard that the birds expelled feces—all while the chickens were still alive. Dan Rather echoed the views of all kind people when he said on the CBS Evening News, “[T]here's no mistaking what [the video] depicts: cruelty to animals, chickens horribly mistreated before they're slaughtered for a fast-food chain.”

The video from the investigation was broadcast by television stations around the world as well as all three national evening news shows, Good Morning America, and all the cable news networks. Plus, more than a million people have watched the footage on PETA's Web site.

The world's leading animal welfare experts condemned the cruelty at this KFC supplier. Colorado State University professor of animal science, biomedical sciences, and philosophy, university distinguished professor, and university bioethicist Dr. Bernard Rollin writes, “I can unequivocally state that the behavior I saw exemplified in [this] videotape was totally unacceptable. … The tape showed evidence of a work force that apparently failed to recognize that chickens are living sentient beings capable of feeling pain and distress.” Dr. Temple Grandin, perhaps the industry's leading farmed-animal welfare expert, writes, “The behavior of the plant employees was atrocious,” and asserts that even though she has toured poultry facilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, France, the Netherlands, and the U.K., the video showed “the WORST employee behavior I have ever seen in a poultry plant.” University of Guelph professor of applied ethology and university chair in animal welfare Dr. Ian Duncan writes, “This tape depicts scenes of the worst cruelty I have ever witnessed against chickens … and it is extremely hard to accept that this is occurring in the United States of America.”

What You Can Do

The best thing you can do to help spare animals from such torture is to stop eating them and, thus, stop supporting the industry that allows such cruelty to occur.

What the Investigator Saw
Eyewitness Testimony From PETA’s Investigation Into a Pilgrim’s Pride’s Chicken Slaughterhouse

PETA’s investigator spent eight months at a Pilgrim’s Pride chicken slaughterhouse in
Moorefield, W.Va., and documented hundreds of acts of egregious cruelty to animals.
The following are excerpts from the investigator’s affidavit:
- “I was employed as a live hanger in the receiving room, also referred to as the ‘hang pen.’ I worked daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. alongside eight other live hangers. … Our job was to pick up live chickens from the conveyor belt and secure the legs of these
chickens in shackles hanging above the conveyer belt, which transport the fully conscious animals to the ‘kill room.’”
- “On a daily basis, there were instances in which too many chickens were dumped from the crates to the conveyor belt at the same time. Sometimes, this would cause animals at the bottom of the pile to suffocate. Other times, the live hangers, frustrated
by the unmanageable number of birds, would discard live chickens from the line by haphazardly throwing them against the wall of the hang pen or onto the floor. On other days, the conveyor belt was set to move too quickly, and therefore, live
chickens were discarded in the same indiscriminate manner described above.
Management rarely made any effort to reduce the numbers of birds entering the hang pen or to slow the speed of the conveyor belt. … In some instances, live chickens were discarded in the manner described above, in part, merely to create extra work
for an unpopular person who had been assigned to [pick them up].”
- “The chickens who were discarded and not picked up from the floor and shackled were thrown into a large bin, or hopper, located just outside the door to the hang pen. Often, the chickens were still alive when tossed into the hopper, and as a result, I
witnessed many instances in which chickens were suffocated as the hopper filled with bodies.”
- “During my employment, I witnessed and recorded on video hundreds of instances of behavior by the live hangers that can be described not only as intentionally and unnecessarily cruel to the chickens, but also as the actions of depraved individuals with violent tendencies. Simply stated, the workers abused the chickens as a means to alleviate boredom or vent frustrations.”
- “On the morning of November 13, 2003, approximately 150 to 200 live chickens were slammed against the wall by [numerous employees]. After we returned from a half-hour lunch break, many of the birds were still alive.”
- “On November 17, 2003, [an employee] twisted the neck of a live chicken until the head popped off; he then used what remained of the bloodied body of the chicken to write graffiti on the wall.”
- “On November 17, 2003, [an employee] intentionally squeezed two live chickens so hard that feces squirted out of them. [He] directed the feces into the eyes of seven other live chickens, exclaiming, ‘They shit all over us every day.’”
- “On November 17 and December 19, 2003, and January 29, 2004, [an employee] used a concretefilled coffee can to crush live chickens, and the chickens did not die instantaneously.”
- “On December 22, 2003, [an employee] placed a live chicken on the floor and jumped on the bird; the bird exploded under his weight, and her intestines were visible.”
- “On January 7, 2004, [two employees] used a live chicken as a football, repeatedly ‘punting’ her against a wall.”
- “On January 7, 8, and 13, 2004, [an employee] used a rubber hose to beat live chickens.”
- “On January 14, 2004, [an employee] plucked feathers from live chickens in order to make ‘snow.’”
- “On January 28, 2004, [an employee] placed three live chickens on the floor and then, in turn, jumped on each of them, causing the birds to explode, while exclaiming, ‘I like to hear the popping sound they make.’”
- “On February 10, 2004, [an employee] used a can of red spray paint to spray paint into the mouths and eyes of live chickens.”
- “On April 9, 2004, [an employee] placed a latex glove over the head of a live chicken and watched as the chicken gasped for air and then died.”
- “On April 9, 2004, [an employee] picked up a live chicken and intentionally broke off the top section of her beak by pulling the beak up toward her head.”
- “On April 13, 2004, [an employee] was frustrated because three seasoned live hangers were not present and there were two new employees. As a result, operations that day were not smooth, and as an expression of anger and irritation, [he] began to punch live chickens as they passed by him on the conveyor.

What the Experts Say
Comments on PETA’s Investigation Into Pilgrim’s Pride’s Chicken Slaughterhouse.

Academic and professional experts in poultry welfare, veterinary medicine, and humane slaughter reviewed PETA’s video footage from an investigation into Pilgrim’s Pride’s chicken slaughterhouse in Moorefield, W.Va. Below are some excerpts from these experts’ statements:

Dr. Ian J.H. Duncan, Ph.D., Professor of Applied Ethology, University Chair in Animal Welfare, University of Guelph.

Dr. Duncan is renowned as one of the world’s leading poultry welfare experts and has published more than 30 book chapters and 150 scientific papers on animal welfare.
- “This tape depicts scenes of the worst cruelty I have ever witnessed against chickens.”
- “This is a completely unacceptable way to kill chickens and would violate the animal cruelty laws of all civilized countries.”
- “Slamming [chickens] against a wall is completely unacceptable as a method for killing birds. It would result in terrible injuries including bruising, broken bones and dislocated joints without first rendering the birds unconscious.”
- “The sum total of the pain and suffering inflicted on the chickens in the scenes is enormous and it is extremely hard to accept that this is occurring in the United States of America.”

Dr. Temple Grandin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University.

Dr. Grandin is internationally regarded as one of the leading experts and industry consultants on farmed-animal slaughter, handling, and welfare. She has designed equipment and systems that are used in facilities across the country, and she serves on the
animal-welfare panels of several leading corporations.
- “The behavior of the plant employees was atrocious. … This is the WORST employee behavior I have ever seen in a poultry plant.”
- “Repeated kicking, stomping on and throwing of chickens is cruel animal abuse. Scientific research has clearly shown that chickens feel pain. Using chickens as footballs is horrible.”
- “The entire poultry industry should step forward and speak out against the animal abuse shown on this tape.”

Dr. Donald M. Broom, Ph.D., Professor of Animal Welfare, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge.

Dr. Broom is a world-renowned expert on farmed-animal behavior and welfare and has written seven books and more than 300 scientific papers on various topics. He has served as an animal-welfare advisor to governments, including serving as chair of the European Union Scientific Veterinary Committee (Animal Welfare Section).
- “I have visited many poultry slaughterhouses but I have never seen cruelty to chickens to the extent shown in this video. I consider that all of the incidents described … would be grounds for a successful prosecution for cruelty to animals in most countries.”
- “Chickens are birds which live socially and have a full range of sensory abilities, including nociceptors. Their brains receive and analyse information from the nociceptors so they have an
elaborate pain system. … Their cognitive ability is sufficient for them to feel and respond to pain in a way which is very similar to that of humans and other mammals.”

Dr. Bernard E. Rollin, Ph.D., Professor of Animal Science, Biomedical Sciences, and Philosophy, University Distinguished Professor, University Bioethicist, Colorado State University

Dr. Rollin began teaching veterinary ethics at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine 28 years ago. He is internationally recognized as a leading expert in welfare and has published two books on the subject and lectured more than 600 times to tens of thousands of ranchers and farmers.
- “The tape showed evidence of a work force that apparently failed to recognize that chickens are living sentient beings capable of feeling pain and distress.”
- “Worker behavior was replete with overt cruelty of a sort that has been illegal under the cruelty laws for about 200 years. I am not talking about the standard criticisms of the poultry industry. … I am referring to intentional, willful, malicious, aberrant, sadistic, purposeful infliction of pain and suffering on the animals to no profit-related end, the sort of behavior the anti-cruelty laws were expressly established to prevent and punish.”
- “I would urge the harshest penalties mandated by law for these workers, and particularly for the managers who allowed such behavior to become a pattern. The plant should be closed down until there is evidence of a workforce that can handle animals properly.”

Dr. A.B.M. Raj, B.V.Sc., M.V.Sc., Ph.D., School of Clinical Veterinary Science, Division of Farm Animal Science, University of Bristol

Dr. Raj has published more than 50 scientific papers on various methods of stunning and slaughter and served as a member of the working group on stunning and slaughter for the European Union Scientific Veterinary Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare. He is currently a member of working groups on stunning and slaughter for the European Food Safety Authority and the World Organisation for Animal Health.
- “Throwing live birds deliberately, as an object, either on another worker to attract his attention or taunt him, or to open a door is not an acceptable standard of poultry production and management. Throwing live chickens at targets would cause suffering and pain.”
- “I was astounded to see such a large number of live birds slammed against the belt rail, floor and wall within such a short time. Some of these birds were either kicked or indiscriminately caught by their wings and necks and put back on the conveyor belt to be processed for human consumption. The latter suggests that these birds were ‘fit for human consumption’ and therefore one could assume that the cruelty caused by slamming live chickens on the conveyor belt rail, floor and wall was to pacify
or relieve frustration.”

Dr. Laurie Siperstein-Cook, Avian Veterinarian, D.V.M. from the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California at Davis.

Dr. Siperstein-Cook has a veterinary practice specializing in birds, including chickens, and has testified before the California Legislature on poultry welfare issues.
- “It’s obvious to me that the goal of throwing the chickens is for amusement of the workers but constitutes extreme and gratuitous cruelty.”
- “In NO case can the behavior of the workers be considered a necessary or acceptable way of killing or stunning chickens.”
- “When a chicken is thrown haphazardly like this, there is no way to control which body part hits the wall. If what hits the wall is the back or side or feet, the chicken is not likely to be knocked
unconscious, but rather suffer broken bones, severe bruising and/or internal injuries.”

An Open Letter From Sir Paul McCartney to KFC CEO David Novak

July 24, 2003

Dear Mr. Novak:
I am writing on behalf of my friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), as well as compassionate consumers across the globe, to urge KFC to implement PETA’s list of eight simple things that need to be done to reduce cruelty to chickens raised and killed for your carry-outs.
For example, I would like to see KFC stop allowing chickens to be bred and drugged so that they become so heavy that they cripple under their own weight, end the starvation of birds who are constantly hungry because they are bred to grow too quickly, stop burning the beaks off parent birds, and make sure slaughter methods do not permit animals to be scalded to death in feather-removal tanks. As you know, full details of PETA’s recommendations are available on KFCCruelty.com.
They are based on the scientific work of KFC’s own animal-welfare advisors and would eliminate only the most horrible abuses of these animals. If KFC suppliers treated dogs or cats the way they treat chickens, they could be charged with the crime of cruelty to animals. I am a vegetarian because I realize that even little chickens suffer pain and fear, experience a range of feelings and
emotions, and are as intelligent as mammals, including dogs, cats, and even some primates. These remarkable animals are deserving of at least a little kindness. Please let PETA know that you will end the most egregious forms of abuse endured by chickens raised and killed for KFC.
Sincerely,
Sir Paul McCartney

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Pink

In between putting out new albums, touring, and even recording the theme song for NBC’s “NFL Kickoff Special,” pop star Pink finds time to stick up for animals. She penned a petition to KFC asking the company to stop allowing its birds to be tortured, which has been signed by tens of thousands of people worldwide. She also put a link to KentuckyFriedCruelty.com on her home page, teaching tens of thousands of her fans about KFC’s cruelty. You can join Pink by signing her petition today.

Pamela Anderson

Former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson has written to KFC urging the company to improve the lives and deaths of its chickens, appeared in billboards and TV ads asking people to boycott KFC, narrated a video exposé of KFC’s cruelty to chickens, and even asked Kentucky’s governor to remove a bust of Col. Sanders from the State Capitol Building.

Chrissie Hynde

Few faces in the rock world are more recognizable than that of Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, a longtime animal rights supporter. In 2004, Hynde took her passion to the streets by smearing “blood” on the windows of a KFC restaurant in France during a lunch-hour protest.

Phil Collins

Phil Collins fought drumsticks with drumsticks by donating his signed drumsticks (the kind you play the drums with, not the kind that come from chickens) to be auctioned off as a benefit for PETA’s “Kentucky Fried Cruelty” campaign.

Emmylou Harris

Motorists from coast to coast have gotten some food for thought from country icon Emmylou Harris, who urges them to boycott KFC in a recent billboard campaign.

……much more celebrities speak out against KFC!!

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Movies:

Watch the Kentucky Fried Cruelty trailers.

The trailers and accompanying descriptions are a fictional dramatization inspired by true events.

Torture Camp

If you ask the Colonel, he'll tell you that the only way to keep a prisoner in line is to see to it that he won't get up when you rub his face in the dirt. And the only way to keep the guards happy is to let them have their fun. That's the way it's always been down on the farm, because that's just how the Colonel likes it.

Crack House

Ever wonder how the Colonel keeps his chickens so strung out? Drugs—that's how. Some say the Colonel likes the feeling of power, but the truth is that he wants chickens to get a real taste for death before he gives it to them. When you ask him about it, he always says the same thing: "There're plenty of ways to get fried."

Fried

When the end comes, it's painful. The Colonel likes to do it the old-fashioned way: "The pop and sizzle, the burning flesh—it's intoxicating," he'll tell ya. It's a rare thing to see the Colonel enjoying himself, but at times like these—when he does the job himself—you might just catch him smiling.

Source: Peta

Breaking Investigation Reveals Holiday Horrors for Turkeys

More than 72 million of the nearly 270 million turkeys killed for food every year in the U.S. are slaughtered for holiday meals. This year, just prior to the flesh-focused Thanksgiving holiday, PETA conducted an undercover investigation lasting more than two months at the factory farms of Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., the self-proclaimed "world's leading poultry breeding company."

While working at a series of Aviagen factory farms in West Virginia, PETA's investigator documented that workers tortured, mutilated, and maliciously killed turkeys. The following are just a few of the documented offenses:

• Employees stomped on turkeys' heads, punched turkeys, hit them on the head with a can of spray paint and pliers, and struck turkeys' heads against metal scaffolding.
  
• Men shoved feces and feed into turkeys' mouths and held turkeys' heads under water. Another bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat.
  
• A supervisor said he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s.
  
• One man said he saw a coworker fatally inject turkey semen and sulfuric acid into turkeys' heads.

PETA's investigator repeatedly brought abuses to a supervisor's attention. The supervisor responded, "Every once in a while, everybody gets agitated and has to kill a bird." PETA also brought the abuse to the attention of Aviagen, and although the company made assurances and instituted some new rules, the cruelty did not stop. PETA's investigator also saw disgusting, cramped conditions. The rotting remains of about 70 hens were left amid live birds—who had to climb over the dead—for more than a day. A supervisor urinated in turkey pens, and workers spat tobacco in the pens as well. The suffering typically found on factory farms was also routine in Aviagen's sheds: Hens' beaks were cut with pliers, massive birds collapsed and died of exhaustion or heart attacks, and turkeys were thrown into transport cages.

Watch the video:

Please also write to the National Turkey Federation and urge it to recommend that all turkey breeders implement PETA's seven-point animal welfare plan.

Those who eat turkeys are supporting this cruelty. Please help PETA put an end to this suffering by leaving turkeys off your plate and by supporting PETA's work in behalf of animals.

One of twelve men—including three supervisors—who forcefully threw turkeys into coops for transport.
One of four men who was seen stomping on turkeys' heads.

An employee bends a turkey's head and neck back as he tries repeatedly to break it. It took him four attempts before he was successful.
A baby turkey who had become trapped in a transport box and likely slowly died when no one noticed him.


A baby turkey rests in the hand of PETA's investigator.

Turkeys were confined to overcrowded, dusty factory farms by the thousands.

‘Life and Death for Factory-Farmed Turkeys,’ With Shirley Jones

Shirley Jones, matriarch of The Partridge Family, exposes cruelty to turkeys on factory farms and in slaughterhouses.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Turkeys

These beautiful, inquisitive, intelligent birds endure lives of suffering and painful deaths. Here are 10 good reasons to carve out a new tradition by flocking to vegetarian entrées, along with some scrumptious holiday cooking tips and recipes—thankfully, none of them require stuffing food up anyone's behind.

1) They're Begging Your Pardon
Turkeys are “smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings,” Oregon State University poultry scientist Tom Savage says. Turkeys are social, playful birds who enjoy the company of others. They relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes. Anyone who spends time with them at farm sanctuaries quickly learns that turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats. The president “pardons” a turkey every year—can't you pardon one too? Learn more about turkeys.

2) Get Rid of Your Wattle
Turkey flesh is brimming with fat. Just one homemade patty of ground, cooked turkey meat contains a whopping 244 mg of cholesterol, and half of its calories come from fat. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease, and they have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than vegans are. Learn more about animal products and your health.

3) Can You Spell ‘Pandemic’?
Experts are warning that a virulent new strain of bird flu could spread to human beings and kill millions of Americans. The Bush administration is trying to deal with the problem, but experts warn that current factory-farm conditions, in which turkeys are drugged up and bred to grow so quickly they can barely walk, are a prescription for disease outbreaks. Eating a turkey carcass contaminated with bird flu could kill you, and currently available drugs might not work. Cooking should kill the virus, but it could be left behind on cutting boards and utensils and spread through something else you're eating.

4) Recall Process Doesn't Fly
The U.S. government is the only government in the Western world that does not have the power to recall contaminated animal products. Instead, American consumers must trust the profit-hungry meat, dairy, and egg industries to decide when recalls are necessary. Dan Glickman, secretary of agriculture under President Bill Clinton, explained that this limit on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) power to protect consumers from tainted animal products is “one of the biggest loopholes out there.” There are all sorts of killer bacteria found in turkey flesh, including salmonella and campylobacter. The Center for Science in the Public Interest found that 28 percent of fresh turkeys were contaminated with bacteria, primarily with campylobacter, for which the USDA does not even require testing. Learn more about meat contamination.

5) Let the Turkeys Give Thanks!
Let's face it: If you're eating a turkey, that's a corpse you've got there on the table, and if you don't eat it quickly enough, it will decompose. Is that really what we want as the centerpiece of a holiday meal: an animal's dead and decaying carcass? Thanksgiving is a time to take stock of our lives and give thanks for all that we have, so why not let the turkeys give thanks too?

6) Want Stuffing With Your Supergerms?
Dosing turkeys with antibiotics to stimulate their growth and to keep them alive in filthy, disease-ridden conditions that would otherwise kill them poses even more risks for people who eat them. Leading health organizations—including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association—have warned that by giving powerful drugs (via animal products) to humans who are not sick, the farmed-animal industry is creating possible long-term risks to human health and will spread antibiotic-resistant supergerms. That's why the use of drugs to promote growth in animals used for food has been banned for many years in Europe.

7) Without a Wing and a Prayer
On factory farms, turkeys live for months in sheds where they are packed so tightly that flapping a wing or stretching a leg is nearly impossible. They stand in waste, and urine and ammonia fumes burn their eyes and lungs. At the slaughterhouse, turkeys have their throats slit while they are still conscious. Those who miss the automated knife are scalded to death in the defeathering tank.

8) Foul Farming
Anyone who has driven by a farm has probably smelled it first from a mile away. Turkeys and other animals raised for food produce 130 times as much excrement as the entire U.S. human population—all without the benefit of waste treatment systems. There are no federal guidelines to regulate how factory farms treat, store, and dispose of the trillions of pounds of concentrated, untreated animal excrement that they produce each year.

9) Blood, Sweat, and Fear
Killing animals is inherently dangerous work, but the fast line speeds, the dirty, slippery killing floors, and the lack of training make animal-processing plants some of the most dangerous places to work in America today. The industry has refused to slow down the lines or buy appropriate safety gear because these changes could cut into companies’ bottom lines. In its 185-page exposé on worker exploitation by the farmed-animal industry, “Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers’ Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants,” Human Rights Watch explains, ‘These are not occasional lapses by employers paying insufficient attention to modern human resources management policies. These are systematic human rights violations embedded in meat and poultry industry employment.”

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Turkeys

Ben Franklin called turkeys “true American originals.” He had tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty.¹ Turkeys are intelligent animals who enjoy having their feathers stroked and listening to music, with which they will often sing quite loudly.² In nature, turkeys can fly 55 miles an hour, run 25 miles an hour, and live up to four years.
But the story’s very different for turkeys on factory farms: They will be killed when they are only 5 or 6 months old, and during their short lives, they will be denied even the simplest pleasures, like running, building nests, and raising their young.

Like chickens, the 300 million turkeys raised and killed for their flesh every year in the United States have no federal legal protection.⁴ Thousands of turkeys are crammed into filthy sheds after their beaks and toes are burned off with a hot blade. Many suffer heart failure or debilitating leg pain, often becoming crippled under the weight of their genetically manipulated and drugged bodies. When the time comes for slaughter, they are thrown into transport trucks, and when they arrive at the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut and their feathers burned off—often while they are still fully conscious.

The Hidden Lives of Turkeys

Many people think of turkeys as little more than a holiday centerpiece, but turkeys are social, playful birds who enjoy the company of others. They relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes. Anyone who spends time with them on farm sanctuaries quickly learns that turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats.When not forced to live on filthy factory farms, turkeys spend their days caring for their young, building nests, foraging for food, taking dustbaths, preening themselves, and roosting high in trees. Read on to learn more fascinating turkey facts.

Talkin’ Turkey

• Ben Franklin had tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty—he called the turkey “a bird of courage” and “a true original native of America.” Franklin even suggested naming the turkey, instead of the eagle, as our national bird.
  
• Turkeys have been genetically modified to gain weight rapidly because fatter turkeys mean fatter wallets for farmers. But in nature, the turkey’s athletic prowess is truly impressive. Wild turkeys can fly at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and run at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour. The natural lifespan of the turkey is between 10 and 12 years, but on factory farms they are slaughtered when they’re just 5 months old.
  
• Male turkeys, or “toms,” are bigger and have more colorful plumage than female turkeys, or “hens.” The males attract females with their wattles, colorful flaps of skin around their necks, and tufts of bristles that hang from their chests.
  
• Turkeys are born with full-color vision just like our own, and in nature they stay with their mothers for up to the first five months of their lives. These gentle birds are very bonded to their young—in the wild, a mother turkey will courageously defend her family against predators.
  
• Many respected researchers have spoken out on behalf of this intelligent, social bird. Oregon State University poultry scientist Tom Savage says, “I've always viewed turkeys as smart animals with personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings. The ‘dumb’ tag simply doesn’t fit.”
  
• Even a popular turkey-hunting guide admits that turkeys are far from feather-brained. According to the Remington Guide to Turkey Hunting, turkeys will “test your wits as they are rarely tested in modern life.”
  
• Erik Marcus, the author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, has spent a considerable amount of time with turkeys on farm sanctuaries. He reports, “Turkeys remember your face and they will sit closer to you with each day you revisit. Come back day after day and, before long, a few birds will pick you out as their favorite and they will come running up to you whenever you arrive. It’s definitely a matter of the birds choosing you rather than of you choosing the birds. Different birds choose different people.”

Nothing to Be Thankful for

More than 45 million turkeys are killed each year at Thanksgiving, and more than 22 million die at Christmas.

Before ending up as holiday centerpieces, these gentle, intelligent birds spend five to six months on factory farms where thousands of them are packed into dark sheds with no more than 3.5 square feet of space per bird. Turkeys on factory farms are denied everything that is natural to them, such as foraging for food, dustbathing, and raising their young.To keep the overcrowded birds from scratching and pecking each other to death, workers cut off portions of the birds’ toes and upper beaks with hot blades and de-snood the males (the snood is the flap of skin that runs from the beak to the chest). No pain relievers are used during any of these procedures.

Turkeys are genetically bred to grow as fast as possible, and they often become crippled under their own weight. A PETA investigator videotaped one turkey farmer beating sick and injured birds to death with a pole, a killing method deemed “standard industry practice.”

Turkeys won’t breathe fresh air or feel the sun on their backs until they’re shoved onto trucks bound for slaughter. They are transported for hours without food or water through all weather extremes—and many will die on this nightmarish journey.

At the slaughterhouse, the survivors are hung upside-down by their weak and crippled legs before their heads are dragged through an electrified “stunning tank,” which immobilizes but does not kill them. Many birds dodge the tank and are still fully conscious when their throats are slit. If the knife fails to properly cut the birds’ throats, they are scalded alive in the tank of boiling water used for feather removal.

Please don’t support an industry that abuses these fascinating animals

Source: PETA

Buy One, Get One Killed

If people who bought dogs from breeders had to face the consequences right then and there, they'd be a lot more likely to do the right thing and adopt from an animal shelter instead. No matter how you do the math, buying an animal from a breeder adds up to killing a homeless animal in an animal shelter. In this new hard-hitting spot for PETA's ABC campaign, one unfortunate family figures this out the hard way.

Source: Peta
Creative: Dan Neri and Scott Murray of Matter
Director: Steven Tsuchida of Oil Factory

About PETA

It's very comforting to know that exists this organization committed in helping to stop cruelty against animals worldwide. They're are doing an amazing job.

http://www.peta.org

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), with more than 2.0 million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world.

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.

PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

PETA's History: Compassion in Action

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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an international nonprofit charitable organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, with affiliates in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, India, and the Asia-Pacific Region.

Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA educates policymakers and the public about animal abuse and promotes kind treatment of animals.

PETA’s animal protection work brings together members of the scientific, judicial, and legislative communities to stop abusive practices. Aided by thorough investigative work, congressional involvement, consumer boycotts, and international media coverage, PETA achieves long-term changes that improve the quality of life for, and prevent the deaths of, countless animals.

Historic Cases
PETA has been responsible for such breakthroughs as closing the largest horse-slaughter operation in the United States, shutting down a military laboratory where animals were shot, and stopping the use of cats and dogs in all “wound” laboratories. The Philadelphia Daily News reported, “PETA has done more to lessen animal suffering than nearly any other organization.”(1)

The following are some of PETA’s major accomplishments:

•PETA first uncovered the abuse of animals in experiments in 1981 and launched the precedent-setting “Silver Spring monkeys” case. This resulted in the first arrest and criminal conviction of an animal experimenter in the United States on charges of cruelty to animals, the first confiscation of abused laboratory animals, and the first U.S. Supreme Court victory for animals in laboratories.
•PETA released 70 hours of graphic video footage that documented the appalling treatment of primates at the University of Pennsylvania head-injury laboratory, resulting in government fines and the loss of funding for the cruel study.
•PETA’s undercover investigation of a huge contract testing laboratory in Philadelphia and our subsequent campaign led to Benetton’s permanent ban on animal tests—a first for a major cosmetics company. Other leading companies, such as Avon, Revlon, and Estée Lauder, followed suit. Gillette announced a moratorium on animal tests after PETA’s 10-year campaign. PETA now lists hundreds of companies that do not test products on animals. Please visit CaringConsumer.com for details.
•After negotiations with PETA, juice-makers POM, Welch’s, and Ocean Spray agreed to stop funding animal experiments.
•PETA was victorious over the General Motors Corporation, which ended its use of animals in crash tests.
•PETA released investigators’ photographs and videotaped footage taken inside Carolina Biological Supply Company, the nation’s largest biological supply house. PETA documented that animals were removed from gas chambers and injected with formaldehyde without being checked for vital signs, as well as cats’ and rats’ struggling during embalming and employees’ spitting on animals. The company was charged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
•With the help of celebrities like Ewan McGregor and Martin Sheen; U.S., German, and Canadian government officials; and activists worldwide, PETA was able to secure the release of polar bears who had been suffering for years in the Suarez Bros. Circus. The bears are now recovering and thriving in more appropriate climates.
•PETA distributed an undercover videotape that showed Las Vegas casino “entertainer” Bobby Berosini beating orangutans with a metal rod. The U.S. Department of the Interior revoked Berosini’s captive-bred-wildlife permit, making it illegal for Berosini to buy or sell orangutans.
•An undercover investigation of painful scabies experiments on dogs and rabbits at Ohio’s Wright State University led to charges by the USDA of 18 violations of the AWA. The experiments were stopped.
•After being pressured by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and PETA, the American College of Surgeons replaced animals with simulations at its training conferences and is now urging medical schools to adopt non-animal training alternatives.
•PETA released undercover photographs and videotapes that showed ducks’ being violently force-fed on a foie gras farm in New York, resulting in the first-ever police raid on a U.S. factory farm. After learning the gory details of foie gras production, many airlines and restaurants dropped the so-called “delicacy” from their menus.
•Undercover investigations at pig-breeding factory farms in North Carolina and Oklahoma revealed horrific conditions and daily abuse of pigs, including the fact that one pig was skinned alive, leading to the first-ever felony indictments of farm workers.
•In another precedent-setting case, a California furrier was charged with cruelty to animals after a PETA investigator filmed him electrocuting chinchillas by clipping wires to the animals’ genitals. The American Veterinary Medical Association denounced the killing method, saying that it causes animals to experience the pain of a heart attack while they are still conscious. In another undercover exposé, PETA videotaped a fur rancher’s causing minks to die in agony by injecting them with weed-killer. Both farms agreed to stop these cruel killing methods.
•After exposing the National Air and Space Administration’s Bion experiment, in which straitjacketed monkeys were to be implanted with electrodes and then launched into space, PETA succeeded in pressuring the U.S. to pull out of the project.
•PETA’s undercover investigation of a Florida exotic-animal “training school” revealed that big cats were being beaten with ax handles, which encouraged the USDA to develop new regulations governing animal training methods.
•PETA’s undercover investigation of Boys Town National Research Hospital’s experiments, in which researchers cut into kittens’ heads and starved cats in order to study deafness, spurred the National Institutes of Health to issue a report condemning Boys Town’s animal care and use program. The USDA found that Boys Town had failed to comply with the AWA.
•PETA convinced Mobil, Texaco, Pennzoil, Shell, and other oil companies to cover their exhaust stacks after showing how millions of birds and bats had become trapped in the shafts and were burned to death.
•After two years of negotiations and more than 400 demonstrations worldwide, McDonald’s became the first fast-food chain to agree to make basic welfare improvements for farmed animals. Burger King and Wendy’s followed suit within a year’s time, and within two years, Safeway, Kroger, and Albertson’s had also agreed to adopt stricter guidelines in order to improve the lives of billions of animals slaughtered for food.
•Thanks to PETA’s long campaign to push PETCO to take more responsibility for the animals in its care, the company agreed to stop selling large birds in all its stores and to make provisions for the millions of rats and mice in its care.

Other Projects
Since its inception in 2001, PETA’s mobile clinic, SNIP (Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please), has sterilized tens of thousands of dogs and cats at a reduced cost in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area, preventing the births of tens of thousands of unwanted animals.

PETA has also participated in the production of three animal rights albums (Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA, Tame Yourself, and Animal Liberation) featuring artists such as Chrissie Hynde, Howard Jones, Indigo Girls, Michael Stipe, Belinda Carlisle, and Good Charlotte. PETA has also held several “Rock Against Fur” and “Fur Is a Drag” benefit concerts featuring The B-52s, k.d. lang, and other prominent performers. Long-time supporter Sir Paul McCartney invited PETA to set up literature tables on his world tour.

Through its Fur Is Dead campaign, PETA has exposed the cruelty of the fur industry and convinced retailers like J.Crew, Wet Seal, Forever 21, and Ann Taylor to stop selling fur in their stores—and top designers such as Ralph Lauren, Marc Bouwer, and Stella McCartney have banned the use of fur in their designs. American Idol judge Simon Cowell and Oscar-winner Charlize Theron both appeared with dogs in our “If you wouldn’t wear your dog, please don’t wear any fur” ads, and Pamela Anderson, Christy Turlington, and Kim Basinger have all posed au naturel for PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” ads. Martha Stewart stopped wearing fur after seeing PETA’s anti-fur videos and even hosted one of her own, exposing the horrors of the industry. Nine Inch Nails lead singer Trent Reznor narrated a video for PETA about the gruesome dog and cat fur trade in China.

PETA convinced 40 companies, including Adidas-Salamon, Gap Inc., Eddie Bauer, Nike, and Reebok, to refuse to use Indian leather in their products after our investigation of the Indian leather industry revealed horrific abuses that take place during the illegal transport of cows to slaughter. “We found the treatment of animals, as documented by PETA, to be totally unacceptable and not in keeping with the image or standards of our company,” said the CEO of Florsheim.(2)

“Meet Your Meat,” a video produced by PETA and narrated by Alec Baldwin, is a powerful look at each stage of life of animals raised for food. It was distributed to every member of Congress along with a letter from Baldwin that encouraged them to “protect animals from the array of abuses that are standard in the farmed-animal industry.”(3)

Additionally, PETA staff members speak to students, from those in elementary school to those at the university level. In just one year, PETA distributed information packs to every elementary school in the U.S., reaching millions of young people. PETA and actor Alicia Silverstone launched a national “Cut Out Dissection” campaign, educating students about their right not to dissect. The peta2 Street Team’s young activists spread the “do unto others” message in their communities, and our peta2.com Web site—the primary communication tool of PETA’s Youth Division—receives more than 375,000 visits per month.