KFC said it would stop buying chickens from a West Virginia plant if the alleged abuse of birds there was not stopped, calling acts in a secret videotape of the mishandling “appalling”.
After suspecting ongoing slaughterhouse abuse, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) installed a hidden camera at the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Moorefield, WV that supplies millions of birds to KFC. Footage confirmed PETA’s suspicions as workers were seen stepping on birds, slamming them against walls and floors, ripping off beaks and spitting tobacco into their mouths and eyes.
An investigator for PETA who worked at the plant taped the footage from October to May as part of an 18-month-long series of investigations of companies that supply poultry to KFC, the fast-food chicken chain owned and operated by Yum Brands, Louisville, KY. Pilgrim’s Pride is the second-largest chicken company in the U.S., after Tyson Foods.
In a statement, KFC described the videotape as appalling and said it notified Pilgrim’s Pride that it would stop buying from the West Virginia plant “unless they can definitively assure us there are absolutely no abuses taking place.”
KFC has placed an inspector on-site at the facility and an investigation is currently underway. Pilgrim’s Pride plans to terminate any individuals involved in the alleged activity, according to KFC.
KFC also posts animal welfare information on its Web site stating that while it does not own or operate any poultry farms or processing plants, the company has adopted more humane poultry-handling standards, requiring producers to meet guidelines for the breeding, hatching and raising of chickens.
This is the second stumbling block KFC has reached this year. In June the QSR tried to form a new identity as a healthy-dining option (Xtra, June 8, 2004). Federal regulators ruled that KFC can no longer claim that its fried chicken is compatible with the low-carb lifestyle. KFC also pulled ads last November, which claimed that its original recipe chicken breasts have less fat than a Whopper.
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