CRUELTY!

"They have thoughts and emotions as well as you do."

When is the last time you got a Valentine's day card from a chicken?
They are not even smart enough to unionize and demand better
conditions and better pay so they can afford a Valentine's day card.
To be honest, I am pretty sure most chickens would spell their name
wrong on the union card.
I have never had a chicken show emotion and comfort me when a relative
died, but they have comforted me when I was hungry.
They may have thoughts and emotions, but their thoughts are pretty
much limited to, "It kinda looked like corn, so why did it taste like
a cigarette butt?"
If you were on fire, would a chicken do anything to help you out?-No,
they would wait until you stopped moving and make Joie McNuggets out
of you.

I find many of these posts interesting. Let's start with the idea
that
since chickens are bred to be killed for food, it's okay. Hmm, anyone
recall a time when it was okay to beat/rape/mistreat black people
because they were slaves and that was what they were 'bred' for. Does
this--and did it ever--make what happened to them okay?
Also, about the 'thinking individuals' bit-- would it be okay for us
to then kill/eat/test chemicals on people with mental disabilities?
They, after all, can't pass IQ tests or reason or talk. Does their
silence make it okay to make them suffer?
Ditto very young children?
I find it interesting how heatedly and violently people lash out when
the status quo- in this case "humans are superior to chickens and
therefore have the right to do with them as they please" is
challenged.
It's our attitude of disconnection--our presumed moral
superiority--that has led us to destroy so much of the earth's beauty
and natural resources. If only we humans could see and acknowledge
that we are part of a greater whole--that our actions have
consequences--and that our superior motor skills and intellectual
abilities confer upon us a far greater responsibility to do the right
thing by EVERY living being. Because to acknowledge that might makes
right (which allows a physically and technologically superior human
to
torture and kill a chicken) is the same as acknowledging that those
who use violence (like bombs and rape and psychological torture) have
the right to do so... because they can.
Is that the world we all aspire to and want to leave to our kids?

Since you have eaten there before.You are the reason the chicken is
dead. Next time order it alive. If you go to a steak house make sure
you drive a big truck.

what does OP mean and this letter got me hungry for some KFC.

Whenever I see a PETA letter I go out and buy KFC. PETA is an evil
organization run by people who get rich off of donations.

hmm.. " a completely dissatisfied EX-CUSTOMER"? so you now just
decided to disagree with it??

While I completely and whole heartedly agree with the OP's intended
message I can't help but think of them as an uneducated child who
really has no idea what goes on in regards to factory farms and
slaughter houses and is jus jumping on the band wagon to try and be
cool.
Chickens aren't necessarily "thinking individuals" but they do not
deserve (neither does anything else capable of feeling pain) to live
in horrible conditions and be dismembered alive in a slaugher house.
The OP does however need to realize that they are not the first
person to voice these complaints and neither is Pete Wentz. This is
not a new fight.
There is a time and place for everything and if you are serious
about standing up for animal rights then try contacting local animal
rights groups,PETA or even me to see what you can do to help. Writing
nasty letters and name calling on Planet Feedback is not going to
change anything. Thank You.

I dunno.. I'm just a simple minded person who doesn't like to have to
work harder than she has to.

I really prefer my chickens dead before cooking..cause, I'm sure they
would be hard to eat..if they were still alive!!!

Stop griping! Chickens are much more delicious when they are thrown
into boiling water while alive.

Okay, pass the joint, you're hogging it.

if you dont like it, dont buy it, simple as that

I miss their chicken little sandwiches :(

Um...so the OP is a "dissatisfied ex-customer", which means that at
one point, this person DID, in fact, eat the chickens at KFC. That
suggests to me that this isn't a raging vegetarian/human rights
activist. So the parts of the letter about not giving the chickens
anything more than a "shell of a life" is just bunk.

Just curious - how do you prove that chickens are capable of
"thinking" in anything more than the rudimentary sense? Is there an
IQ or SAT test for chickens now that I somehow missed? I agree that
some of the methods used to raise chickens for chains like KFC are
cruel, but a ranting, raving letter like this one will certainly earn
nothing but a dismissal from KFC. Throwing in mention of the Fall Out
Boys only serves to portray the OP as the juvenile he probably is, and
I doubt if it will be taken seriously by the bigwigs at KFC.

You think that chickens are money, they aren't! they are living,
breathing, THINKING, individuals.
they're not money! they're food!

if you want chickens to live long healthy lives with beaks and good
food then go raise some. they are bred/born/hatched to be
delicious, not petted and given love. so get over it.

this is a real response :)

p.s. fall out boy sucks and this post kinda does too.

Even if I 100% agree with the sentiments in this letter, it is not
effectively written.

No company is going to pay attention to someone that resorts to name
calling and shouting. Didn't most of us get past that type of behavior
in the fifth grade?

A calm, reasonable letter with suggestions and honest feedback would
have been better. May not get the desired results, but at least you
would have a chance of getting your letter read and considered.

In my business, people who rant and rave in communications are only
providing us with a good laugh at their expense.

I remember years ago this comedian complaing about vegans and saying
how you never hear them complaining about the horrible bean abortion
going on whenever people eat bean sprouts.

Plants are living and breathing just as much as animals. They might
not be "thinking" in ways we assume a chicken might although I have
never seen a particularly bright chicken. However, a chicken is NOT an
individual.

Last weekend my 7 year old son was at his dad's house and got to
witness a pig being slaughtered. I had no idea it was going to happen
and when he told me (and I will spare you the gory details that I had
to endure) I cried. I cried for the pig and I cried for my son. I live
in the south and this is a commen thing for most but I did NOT want my
son seeing this kind of gore at this age. I feel like part of his
innocence is lost. We all understand that our meat starts out as a
living animal but still...I just didnt think it was time for him to
see this. Especially how this happend. It was NOT a quick, easy or
painless death.

So yeah, I feel for the animals and I wish we were all vegans. But I
also feel for all the plants that loose their lives every day as well.
And I know this sounds smart but I actually mean this. To me any life
is precious whether its that of a human, animal or plant. I just try
really hard not to think about it and frankly, when I get hungry
enough...it just doesnt matter.

Survival of the fittest I suppose.

I will leave you with this one last thought. I was reading your letter
and this stood out at me.

"You feed chickens growth hormones, feed them contaminated food (which
will infect people), de-beack them for not reason, and keep them in
cramped and confined spaces, and then ruthessly murder them, after not
giving them anything but a shell of a life....How would you like it if
someone made your life a LIVING HELL and then MURDERED you?"

To be honest, if I was living a shell of a life and being tortured I
would welcome death in whatever form it came. Sounds to me like
killing them is doing them a favor. I guess they could just let them
all go free. But eventually we would be over run with chickens.

You know what...its late and I am WAY over tired and its been a really
rough week and I havent had a day off in a month. So please excuse
everything I have said to this point. ROFL!

Since my post got deleted (over the S word, I'm guessing, as I
described poor cows in transport semi trucks), I'll say it again.

I agree with the OP 100%.

I don't remember everything I typed before (and Jeffrey and I had a
good exchange there), so I'm not going to explain myself all over
again.

I simply encourage you, Joie, to go into animal activism if this
remains an important issue to you as you get older and further your
education.

I can't believe a post got pulled over the "S" word (what pantywaist
complained?), given the diatribe that is allowed. Oh well.

Just think of all the lives of worms and bugs they are saving.

I don't agree on a good many things with the rantings of one Eric
Cartman, but I do agree with him on one thing.

"Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they
do is smoke pot and smell bad."

I couldn't have said better myself.

I'm not saying that all people that smoke pot are bad, just the ones
like this OP and her mentor, Fall Out Boy.

I prefer to heed the words of David Lee Roth

"Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough
to pull up right alongside it."

Astroturf.

By my count, from looking at my DVD collection, there are 11 Muppet
movies:

The Muppet Movie

The Great Muppet Caper

The Muppets Take Manhattan

Muppet Treasure Island

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It's a Very Muppet Christmas

A Muppet Family Christmas

Muppets From Space (My favorite!)

Muppet Wizard Of Oz

One Christmas one with John Denver, that I DON'T have and

Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, (It IS Jim Henson Muppets)

Not to mention Fraggle Rock.

Oh, and I am 28. We also have the "Time Life" DVDs "The Best of the
Muppet Show" and Season One of the "Muppet Show" which premered a
year BEFORE I was boen (1977) Also we have Seasons 1 and 2 of
"Fraggle Rock"

Thinking about it, that first one I saw when I was just out of high
school,in a theater which was after 1977, with my girlfriend lol.
Other than that, Disney has a lot of that in their park and my kids
saw all that (I think) just on tv! LOL

How do you feel about veal?

When teeny-boppers venture away from MySpace....

um, i don't know what you are talking about, those chickens are not
even real chickens...i just love it when people complain about fast
food places. i mean really, what do you expect. at least they are
doing you a favor when you decide never to eat there again.

You want to know what's really cruel and inhumane? Listening to Fall
Out Boy. Yeesh.

"You think that chickens are money, they aren't! they are living,
breathing, THINKING, individuals."

Huh?

I wonder what you believe chickens "think" about all day in their
individual lives. I just remember the one at the fair that beat me in
tic-tac-toe when I was 6. DAMN!

I doubt Colonal Sanders is exactly "rolling" in his grave though.
Equally, I doubt he had some pet chickens running around his house.

Granted the way they are put to death is deplorable, but this is a
capitalist society who could care less about that verses the bottom
line.

I would love to read a response from them...if you get it.

Good luck.

As an ex-customer, I'm guessing that you used to eat murdered animals.
Right?

I have no doubt that the treatment of the live birds is cruel. Nor do
I question those that make the choice to not eat meat for ethical
reasons. However, I'm curious as to whether, due to Fall Out Boy,
you've decided to become a complete vegitarian. Or are you just
concerned about KFC?

"A completely dissatisfied ex-customer."

What? You weren't aware that it started out as live chicken before
Pete Wentz told you?

What did you think they did to the chickens BEFORE Fall Out Boy
enlightened you? Did you think they just magically appeared on your
plate all fried and juicy without being killed?

There are few things more annoying than mindless sheep who worship
celebrities and follow their "cause du jour."

Here's a tip Joie, think for yourself.

A mom on the show "Trading Spouses" that was a militant vegetarian.
Her 'new' family had a cookout and invited all the kinfolk to meet
her, and she sat them all down and showed them a video about the cruel
life a chicken has.

She sobbed through the whole thing, and at the end you could hear the
narrartor say somberly "So in the end, remember.......chicken are our
brethren."

My son and I will often say that to each other when we've got a big
plate of KFC or Popeye's in front of us!!

OMG! "Chickens" are some sort of living animal?!? I never knew that
before!!! Thank you so much for opening my eyes so that I may see the
light!!!

...okay, I'm done seeing the light now. This letter has made me
hungry, I'm off to KFC to buy a big bucket of chicken for the whole
family! :)

Okay, I'm a vegetarian, but even I think this letter is ridiculous.

If your goal here is to vent, and perhaps to appeal to other people
who feel similarly to you, then I think the letter is successful.

If your goal is to change KFC's practices, then you might want to dial
back the emotion and give them documented facts (including at least
some that come from somewhere other than PETA, which I believe is your
main source here, because you want them to take you seriously and not
consider that you're just spouting rhetoric that some group -- in this
case PETA -- has fed you).

In particular, you should probably suggest alternatives to cruelty
that wouldn't undermine the goal of making a lot of money. (As to
why chickens are treated this way, it's because it's cost-effective.)


Or you could take a different approach (one which I believe many PETA
members are already using) and try to make these practices less
cost-effective by convincing chicken-eaters that they would rather eat
chickens that have been treated humanely.

If your goal is to talk KFC out of killing, cooking, and serving
chickens, you're probably out of luck. If they quit serving chicken
most of their customers would go away. You would need to convince the
customers to go away in order that KFC went out of business.

I absolutely support your right to express your convictions, but
depending on what your goal is here you may or may not have expressed
them in the most effective way.

Good luck with your efforts on behalf of KFC chickens.

I don't know.... I thought chicken came from six or seven
conglomerates that slaughter and package farmed chicken. I'm not
convinced it's just a KFC thing. And basically I think it's a highly
personal decision what diet to follow and our choices are basically
limited since most of the hunting and gathering has been handed over
to others. I think we need more poultry facts and less poultry drama.
Isn't cruelty part of the process when all animals ultimately get
slaughtered? Come to think about it, ever see how they make cole slaw?
Not a pretty sight!!!

Joie, if PETA's allegations against KFC are true, then they are indeed
guilty of terrible cruelty. I would encourage you to do some research
and try to find an unbiased source for this information as well, since
while PETA's goals are laudable they not exactly an uninvolved source.
Having seen first hand the way chickens are large-scale farmed for
companies such as Tyson, I can tell you that if KFC is mistreating
their chickens they are sadly not alone. Short of becoming a
vegetarian (which is a viable option for many people), your best bet
is to buy only organic, free-range meat.

Even then, the harsh truth is that the life of animals raised for meat
is not fun and games, and they are, by definition, going to be killed
in large numbers every day. My father-in-law was a meat grader for the
USDA, and worked in slaughterhouses for years. They are not nice
places even when they are maintained properly.

I think it's great that you are writing this letter, and letting KFC
know how you feel about this issue. I would advise you to calm down a
bit, though, and rewrite this a bit more professionally. I know this
is an emotional topic, and that video turned my stomach too, but
ranting at KFC is only going to make them more likely to dismiss your
opinion.

Dang it! Now I'm hungry for fried chicken!