'FATHER CHRISTMAS' DELIVERS 'DEADLY' DOLL TO KFC

For Immediate Release:
22 December 2005

Contact:
Sneha Singh: 98212 88706; SnehaS@petaindia.org
Pune – KFC has landed on "Father Christmas's" "naughty" list: This Thursday, he will arrive at the Nucleus Mall KFC with his trademark bag of toys, including a special PETA India bobblehead doll that depicts a sneering Colonel Sanders wielding a bloody butcher’s knife. It's all part of the group's campaign to push KFC to stop its suppliers' worst abuses of chickens.

Date:  Thursday, 22 December
Time:  12 noon sharp
Place:  KFC, Nucleus Mall, Pune

Hundreds of millions of chickens lead miserable lives and meet frightening deaths at the hands of KFC's factory-farming suppliers worldwide. PETA India has obtained video footage of horrific cruelty, including extremely-crowded conditions and crippled chickens, at the farms of KFC supplier Venkateshwara Hatcheries. PETA India has written numerous letters to KFC executives asking them to urge Venkateshwara Hatcheries to implement animal welfare standards but has yet to receive a reply. The atrocious conditions at KFC supply farms in India include chickens stuffed into extremely-crowded warehouses, birds immobilised by leg deformities caused by breeding for rapid growth and excessive weight, barns littered with the diseased carcasses of chickens and abuse by callous workers who neglect to observe even minimal animal welfare standards.

PETA India's efforts to convince KFC to implement animal welfare reforms has won the support of celebrities such as sitarist Anoushka Shankar, Nobel Peace Prize winner His Holiness the Dalai Lama, rock legend Sir Paul McCartney and actor Pamela Anderson.

"KFC should be scratched off everyone's Christmas list', says PETA's Sneha Singh. "Christmas should be a time of peace and goodwill for all, but there is nothing peaceful about the way chickens are treated in KFC suppliers' factory farms and abattoirs".

Protests against KFC continue to take place in cities throughout the world.

For more information, please visit www.KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

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