Below is an article in New York Times about KFC supplier Pilgrim's Pride where some of the worst cases of cruelty towards animals has been brought to the attention of the public. It is an example of what happens to the 'humanity' of workers in places like this.
As more people become aware of the realities of animal abuse, the unbreakable link to the choices made by consumers become undeniable and inexcusable.
In friendship,
prad
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/business/20chicken.html
KFC Supplier Accused of Animal Cruelty
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
An animal rights group involved in a long legal dispute with Kentucky Fried Chicken about the treatment of the 700 million chickens it buys each year is to release a videotape today showing slaughterhouse workers for one supplier jumping up and down on live chickens, drop-kicking them like footballs and slamming them into walls, apparently for fun.
After officials of the KFC Corporation saw the videotape yesterday, they said they would seek dismissal of the workers, inspect the slaughterhouse more often and end their relationship if the cruelty was repeated. The company that owns the slaughterhouse, the Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, the country's second-largest poultry processor, said it was appalled by the tape.
Animal rights groups have long complained that sheer malicious behavior - on top of the expected confinement and bloodletting - goes on in slaughter plants, but this is the first time such graphic proof has been produced. The tape was taken surreptitiously by an investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who worked from October 2003 to May 2004 at a Pilgrim's Pride plant in Moorefield, W.Va., that won KFC's Supplier of the Year award in 1997.
KFC and its parent, Yum Brands, have repeatedly committed themselves to a promise that all suppliers would treat animals humanely. Yesterday, a spokeswoman for KFC said the company wouldn't tolerate the type of behavior in the video.
KFC will require that the employee or employees responsible be terminated, said Bonnie Warschauer, director of public relations, and further violations will
esult in termination of our relationship.
Prominent veterinarians, including those on the company's animal welfare advisory board, called for shutting the plant and dismissing or prosecuting its managers. Dr. Ian J. H. Duncan, an animal and poultry science professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, who is a KFC adviser, said the tape contains some of the worst scenes of animal cruelty that I have ever witnessed.
A Pilgrim's Pride spokesman said the company had an anonymous report about poultry mistreatment at the plant in April and had made it clear to its workers that any such behavior would result in immediate termination. In light of the tape, the company said, it will reopen its investigation.
The tape includes loud music the workers listen to, the screeching of the birds and the sound of each hitting the wall. When released, it will be on a Web site of the animal-rights group, which is known as PETA, at kentuckyfriedcruelty.com.
The undercover investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation and still does undercover work for the group, said in a telephone interview that he saw hundreds of acts of cruelty, including workers tearing beaks off, ripping a bird's head off to write graffiti in blood, spitting tobacco juice into birds' mouths, plucking feathers to make it snow, suffocating a chicken by tying a latex glove over its head, and squeezing birds like water balloons to spray feces over other birds.
He said the behavior was o alleviate boredom or vent frustrations, especially when so many birds were coming in that they would have to work late.
On April 6, one day he filmed, workers made a game of throwing chickens against a wall; 114 were thrown in seven minutes. A supervisor walking past the pile of birds on the floor said, Hold your fire, and, once out of the way, told the crew to carry on.
On another day, he said, the supervisor told the crew to kill correctly because inspectors were visiting. To document cruelty and position his tiny camera, he said, he spent eight months working in the hang pen, where workers attach newly arrived chickens by their feet to a conveyor that carries them upside-down through an electrified stun bath and then into the whirling blades of the throat-cutting machine.
KFC says all its suppliers train their workers in animal welfare, but the investigator said Pilgrim's Pride had nothing on the topic in its orientation manual and the only instruction he received was after five months, and then only in how to wring a chicken's neck by hand. The Web site of Pilgrim's Pride does not note any animal welfare policy.
Last year, PETA sued Kentucky Fried Chicken and called for a boycott, demanding that it require its suppliers to give chickens more room in factory barns, stop forcing growth so rapid that it cripples birds, and to gas birds before hanging them so they feel no pain.
The group has won similar concessions from Burger King, McDonald's and Wendy's.
Yum Brands did not do as PETA requested, but its KFC Web site says the company is committed to the humane treatment of animals. It describes steps taken to assure such treatment, including creating an advisory council and promising to only deal with suppliers who provide an environment that is free from cruelty, abuse and neglect.
Dr. Temple Grandin, a well-known veterinary scientist who designs plants for humane slaughter, called the behavior shown on the videotape absolutely atrocious.
Dr. Grandin is on KFC's animal welfare advisory board, but said PETA had not told her when it sent her the tape this month where it had been taken. They need to fire the plant manager, she said.
Both Ms. Warschauer of KFC and a spokesman for Pilgrim's Pride said they would ask Dr. Grandin to visit the plant.
PETA said it planned to ask a West Virginia prosecutor to prosecute plant employees and managers under state laws that make torture or malicious killing of animals a felony. It has also written to KFC and Pilgrim's Pride, asking them to use gas to knock the animals out before they are killed and to mount video cameras to forestall employee cruelty.
The PETA investigator said he would testify, calling it he right thing to do.
Several American and British veterinary experts to whom PETA sent the videotape expressed disgust.
I have visited many poultry slaughterhouses but I have never seen cruelty to chickens to the extent shown in this video, said Dr. Donald M. Broom, professor of animal welfare at Cambridge University and chairman of the European Union's animal welfare scientific committee. It would be grounds for a successful prosecution for cruelty to animals in most countries.
Here's more below - Pilgrim's Pride shares have already fallen 5.7 percent.
In friendship,
prad
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5720037
Pilgrim's Pride Target of PETA Chicken-Abuse Video
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top animal rights group on Tuesday released a secretly taped video showing cruelty at a U.S. poultry plant owned by Pilgrim's Pride Corp., and the company's shares fell as much as 5.7 percent.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the tape showed workers at a West Virginia Pilgrim's Pride plant ripping off birds' beaks, spitting tobacco into their mouths and eyes, stomping and kicking live chickens, and squeezing them with such force "that the birds expelled feces."
The tape is further documentation collected by PETA in its campaign against KFC, the fast-food chicken chain owned and operated by Yum Brands Inc.
Pilgrim's Pride, the No. 2 U.S. poultry producer after Tyson Foods, is a KFC supplier.
Shares in Pilgrim's Pride were off 89 cents, or 2.9 percent, at $29.87, after earlier dipping as low as $29.00 in New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) trading, traders said.
Representatives for Pilgrim's Pride, based in Pittsburg, Texas, and YUM Brands Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, were not immediately available to comment on the tape.
PETA spokesman Dan Shannon told Reuters the tape was posted on a PETA Web Site (http:/www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=pilgrims_web) and was being offered to U.S. television networks.
Shannon said a PETA employee secretly filmed the cruel treatment of chickens at Pilgrim's Pride Moorefield, West Virginia, plant, which supplies chicken to KFC.
PETA asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites), in a letter on Tuesday, to investigate food safety concerns at the facility, Shannon said.
USDA officials were not immediately available for comment.
PETA also said it had presented the video to local prosecutors, calling for felony charges against those responsible for the alleged animal cruelty.
Shannon said PETA's eight-month-long investigation of the plant, which ended in May, followed separate probes of farms in Australia, India, Germany and the United Kingdom that supply chickens to KFC.
Originally posted by pradtfI wonder what is lacking in the brain wiring of these workers that permits them to perform such barbaric acts and feel no guilt.
Below is an article in New York Times about KFC supplier Pilgrim's Pride where some of the worst cases of cruelty towards animals has been brought to the attention of the public. It is an example of what happens to the 'humanity' of workers in places like this.
-Ray.
Originally posted by rgoudieexactly the same thing that allowed people to work concentration camps etc. The scarey thing is that you don't need to be stupid or mad or evil to become accustomed to these things, studies have shown that perfectly nice & ordinary people become cold and vicious very quickly given the right conditions.
I wonder what is lacking in the brain wiring of these workers that permits them to perform such barbaric acts and feel no guilt.
-Ray.
Originally posted by belgianfreakFair enough. Do you think that, perhaps, there is some sort of psychological or biological test that could be administered to determine a person's predisposition?
exactly the same thing that allowed people to work concentration camps etc. The scarey thing is that you don't need to be stupid or mad or evil to become accustomed to these things, studies have shown that perfectly nice & ordinary pe ...[text shortened]... e become cold and vicious very quickly given the right conditions.
"Mr. Smith, I have the results of your psychological evaluations. You have strong analytical abilities. You also possess advanced spatial abilities. You are, however, weak in the verbal category. Oh, and your capacity for cruelty is off the charts. I recommend becoming a KFC ballastics expert."
-Ray.
Originally posted by belgianfreakExactly why KFC's position, fire the workers responsible, has more to do with PR than an actual desire to address the problem. It's kind of like arguing that the Nazi death camps were okay until a few guards got out of hand.
exactly the same thing that allowed people to work concentration camps etc. The scarey thing is that you don't need to be stupid or mad or evil to become accustomed to these things, studies have shown that perfectly nice & ordinary people become cold and vicious very quickly given the right conditions.
Originally posted by rgoudieOne way to find out who will have these tendencies is to be on the look out in troubled youth. They will often learn cruelty from thier parents, or will be cruel as a way to act out agression against them...
Fair enough. Do you think that, perhaps, there is some sort of psychological or biological test that could be administered to determine a person's predisposition?
"Mr. Smith, I have the results of your psychological evaluations. Y ...[text shortened]... s. I recommend becoming a KFC ballastics expert."
-Ray.
As a humane educator, I am always trying to get teachers to be aware of students who are cruel to animals...Law enforcement officers and child psychologists agree that animal cruelty is one of the top 3 things to look for in a troubled youth...bed wetting and arson are the other two.
Originally posted by belgianfreakI read a book called Slaughterhouse written by an USDA investigator Gail Eisnitz who interviewed slaughterhouse workers who blew the whistle on thier employer...it's quite an interesting read.
exactly the same thing that allowed people to work concentration camps etc. The scarey thing is that you don't need to be stupid or mad or evil to become accustomed to these things, studies have shown that perfectly nice & ordinary pe ...[text shortened]... e become cold and vicious very quickly given the right conditions.
Basically it seems that the kill lines need to move very fast and so there is no time to kill "humanely." Rather workers quickly slit animals' throats often while they are fully conscious...workers reported that if people were hurt, like the blade bounced off the writhing animals and hit the worker, the worker was dragged off the floor, and quickly replaced...the kill line never stopped!!! ...<sigh> all to feed people's greed for flesh! In America alone over 27 billion animals are killed for food!
Anyhow, pertaining to your comment, it was interesting to note that almost every worker reported having to go to the bar after work to drink (i bet they have to do something to emotionally cover up what they did), they'd often get drunk and then admitted to going home and beating their family...very sad situation for humans and animals. I'll never forget the story of one worker who said he loved pigs and that he couldn't bear having to kill them...and recalling his experiences looking pigs in the eye, he broke down crying.
Everyone has a conscience, some people just work harder to cover it up...
Wow, this story is everywhere....CBS, ABC, NBC has covered it, it's on the front page of yahoo news, picked up by Reuters, and I just read that Good Morning America will be covering it in the morning!
To watch the great coverage of this on CBS you can go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/20/national/main630674.shtml
Originally posted by SangeetaThis is what it says in the report you linked to:
Wow, this story is everywhere....CBS, ABC, NBC has covered it, it's on the front page of yahoo news, picked up by Reuters, and I just read that Good Morning America will be covering it in the morning!
To watch the great coverage of this on CBS you can go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/20/national/main630674.shtml
Pilgrim's Pride received an anonymous report about mistreatment April 29 and immediately stopped production, he said. Managers then "communicated the severity of these allegations to our employees, making it clear to them that any such behavior would result in immediate termination," he said.
Immediate termination?!?
No one can say they're not acting vigourosly.
Originally posted by shavixmirDon't automatically believe this official statement. Recall this line from Prad's original post:
Immediate termination?!? No one can say they're not acting vigourosly.
A supervisor walking past the pile of birds on the floor said, Hold your fire, and, once out of the way, told the crew to carry on.
There would be no apparent difference between the official statement of a company that seriously was offended by its employees' actions, and a company that didn't really give a cr*p about the animals as long as profits were maximized.
-Ray.
The Dalai Lama doesn't want KFC in Tibet:
http://tinyurl.com/5nna3
"APPEAL,
On behalf of my friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), I am writing to ask that KFC abandon its plan to open restaurants in Tibet, because your corporation’s support for cruelty and mass slaughter violate Tibetan value.
I have been particularly concerned with the sufferings of chickens for many years. It was the death of a chicken that finally strengthened my resolve to become vegetarian. In 1965, I was staying at a Government Guest House in south India. My room looked directly on to the kitchens opposite. One day I chanced to see the slaughter of a chicken,which made me decide to become a vegetarian.
Tibetans are not, as a rule, vegetarians, because in Tibet vegetables are often scarce and meat forms a large part of the staple diet. However, it was considered more ethical to eat the meat of larger animals such as yaks than small ones, because fewer large animals would have to be killed. For this reason, consumption of fish and chicken was rare, in fact traditionally we thought of chickens only as a source of eggs, not as food themselves, and even eggs were seldom eaten because they were thought to dull the sharpness of mind and memory.
Eating chicken only really began with the arrival of the Chinese communists. These days, when I see a row of plucked chickens hanging in a meat shop it hurts. I find it unacceptable that violence is the basis of some of our food habits. When I am driving through the towns near where I live in India I see thousands of chickens in cages outside restaurants ready to be killed. When I see them I feel very sad, because in the heat they have no shade or relief, and in the cold they have no shelter from the wind. These poor chickens are treated as if they were merely vegetables.
In Tibet, buying animals from the butcher, thereby saving their lives, and setting them free was a common practice. Many Tibetans, even in exile, continue this practice where practically possible. It is therefore quite natural for me to support those who are currently protesting against the introduction of industrial food practices into Tibet that will perpetuate the suffering of huge numbers of chickens."
-Ray.