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Lessons for Black History Month

Teachers, print and copy this page for your students.

KFC Should Stand for “Kindness for Chickens”
Chickens are friendly, curious birds who value their lives just as much as you value yours. Did you know that hens communicate with their chicks even before they hatch? Once the eggs have hatched, hens carefully watch over their chicks, take them under their wings to keep them safe, and teach them all about life. But chicks on Colonel Sanders’ farms never receive this love from their mothers because their lives are horrific—even before they are killed and cut up for food.

Chickens raised for KFC are taken away from their mothers and stuffed into sheds with tens of thousands of other birds. (Imagine how scared you’d be if you were locked inside a crowded room with thousands of people you didn’t know!) The birds aren’t allowed any fresh air or sunshine, and they can barely move because each chicken has to make do with a space that is smaller than a sheet of notebook paper.

Once they’ve gained weight, birds are thrown into tiny crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse. Some chickens fall off the trucks and are left to die alongside the road. The frightened birds who make it to the slaughterhouse are killed when they are only 6 or 7 weeks old.

Many compassionate people, like Dick Gregory, Russell Simmons, and Derrick Bell, are telling KFC’s parent company, Yum! Brands, that they won’t be eating at KFC until it starts treating birds better. Follow their example by contacting KFC and asking the company to do the following:
    • Breed its chickens for health so that they don’t develop crippling leg deformities
    • Give them space to move freely
    • Stop feeding them antibiotics to speed up their growth
    • Give birds perches to sit on and cabbage to peck at so that they can play and be active
    • Remember that chickens are sensitive, feeling individuals who, like all animals, should be treated with respect

Send your letters or posters to:

David Novak, CEO
Yum! Brands, Inc.
1441 Gardiner Ln.
Louisville, KY 40213
1-800-CALL-KFC

Learn why Elizabeth Muto, Traci Bingham, Dick Gregory, and RUSSELL SIMMONS like chickens so much that they refuse to eat them. Visit VegKids.com.
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