KFC Canada and PETA reach agreement

"Following months of closed-door negotiations between PETA and KFC Canada, we are thrilled to announce that KFC Canada has agreed to a historic new animal welfare plan that will dramatically improve the lives and deaths of millions of chickens killed for KFC Canada," said the organisation.

The company will take the following actions:
• Phase in purchases of 100% of its chickens from suppliers that use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK). KFC Canada is the first major restaurant chain to commit to phasing in the exclusive purchasing of chicken meat from CAK slaughterhouses.
• Add a vegan faux-chicken item to the menu of all 461 Priszm-owned KFC restaurants (more than half of all the KFCs in Canada).
• Improve its animal welfare audit criteria to reduce the number of broken bones and other injuries suffered by birds.
• Urge its suppliers to adopt better practices, including improved lighting, lower stocking density and ammonia levels, and a phase-out of growth-promoting drugs and breeding practices that cripple chickens.
• Form an animal welfare advisory panel to monitor the changes and recommend further advancements.

"It's going to drastically reduce the suffering of chickens in slaughterhouses and also . . . improve the living conditions for animals while they're on the farm," said PETA's assistant director of corporate affairs, Matt Prescott.

KFC Canada President Steve Langford: "It will be nice to put this behind us… Our preference is to have nothing negative attached to our brand… Once I got involved and we actually met face to face, we found out that we had no differences of opinion about how animals should be treated."

PETA's campaign, which garnered international attention, has included more than 12,000 protests at KFC restaurants and outside the homes of company senior executives.

The boycott will continue in other countries where KFC has restaurants, including the US, until they follow KFC Canada's lead.