Australia, Put an End to Cruelty Against Chickens!
- by: C. Wolverton
- recipient: Australia's state animal welfare ministers
KFC has thankfully put an end to misleading Australian commercials advertising free-roaming chickens, but the cruelty and false claims continue.
Steggles, one of KFC's leading chicken meat suppliers, claims to raise their chickens "in custom built chicken barns where they are free to roam and have access to food and water." In reality, the chickens are packed densely into the barns, preventing them from pecking, roosting and stretching their wings as they would do in a natural environment. Major suppliers Turi Foods and the Australian Chicken Meat Federation raise their chickens similarly to Steggles, through their Websites display misleading photos of spacious farms.
Australia currently has no legal standard for animal husbandry products, nor an enforceable definition of the term "free to roam." Please send a message to Australia's state animal welfare ministers to request tighter standards for animal welfare and animal product advertising.
We the undersigned are writing to ask you to introduce tighter standards for animal welfare and animal product advertising.
Chickens raised for meat are intelligent creatures capable of feeling physical and emotional pain, but the current Codes of Practice are ineffective in preventing cruelty against them. In addition, Australia lacks an enforceable definition of the term "free range" or "free to roam," allowing meat suppliers to insult customers with blatantly false or misleading labels, claims and images.
We are upset that inhumane treatment and misleading product advertising are allowed to continue unpunished. Please introduce enforceable standards to prevent the cycle of animal suffering and company dishonesty.
Thank you very much for reading our letter.
