None of us like the idea of chickens and turkeys being killed for food, and you can bet the chickens and turkeys like it even less! But while animals are being killed for food, we owe it to them to at least try and make their deaths as gentle as possible.

Now, following months of working with PETA, supermarket giant ASDA is pushing its poultry suppliers toward a less-cruel slaughter method.

ASDA, the second largest supermarket chain in the UK, has announced that it will give purchasing preference to chicken and turkey suppliers using controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), the least-cruel form of slaughter ever developed.

In a letter sent to all ASDA poultry suppliers, David Mainon, ASDA’s senior technical manager for meat and poultry, recently wrote: “Following a review of slaughtering methods employed within the poultry industry, we have now decided to recommend that all our poultry suppliers switch to Controlled Atmosphere Killing… We expect those suppliers who do not currently have controlled atmosphere killing to instigate plans to convert their current system.”

When ASDA’s suppliers switch, it will mean a world of difference for birds. Currently, most birds killed for the UK poultry industry are dumped onto conveyor belts and hung upside-down by their legs in metal shackles, which often results in broken bones. Some may have their throats cut open while still conscious, and some may be scalded to death in tanks of hot water. But with CAK – which works by replacing the oxygen birds breathe with inert gasses (like argon and nitrogen) to gently put them “to sleep” – those abuses are eliminated. Sure, it still sucks that the birds die (and trust me we’re working on that too) but this is a much better way to go.

Bravo, ASDA! Now let’s see the other supermarkets follow your lead…

Image: UConn / CC

You may be surprised to know that the news that former shadow home secretary, David Davis, resigned over the extension of detaining terror suspects without charge to 42 days interests us here at PETA. Why? While the decision by Gordon Brown has been described by MPs as an ‘infringement on civil liberties’, what struck us as most interesting is the comparison we couldn’t help but make between these detainees and chickens. Yep, chickens.

Broiler chickens to be exact. These chickens that are raised for food, either in dingy, smelly and cramped factory farms, or ‘free range’, are generally slaughtered after just 42 days of life. Sure it must be horrible to be locked up in a cell for 42 days, but think about our billions of feathered friends who are bred to die after just, yep you got it, 42 days. Their life sucks from day one and there’s no fair trial at the end of the line for them. Just a death sentence. Now THAT sucks.

Just what am I doing.. someone stop me – it’s almost certain death:

RIGHT!! Roll up, roll up – we have secured 5 places in the Great South run – ‘Europe’s Premier 10-mile road running event’. This 10 mile race is so popular that all of the general entries are usually snapped up sharpish, months before the actual race!!

If you’re interested in a place then please send some information about yourself to info@peta.org.uk. Please mention any running events/fundraising you may have done before, why you support PETA, your interests and anything else you would like to share. The places are £40, and you’ll be running on behalf of PETA – that is, any funds that you raise will go towards PETA’s campaigns. We would like everyone to aim to raise at least £400 for PETA. We will be there every step of the way to help you raise this money so that we, together, can help make the world a nicer place for the animals. (The £40 charge is non-refundable - it’s to cover the entrance fee charged by the organisers.)

The run takes place on the 26th October in the streets of Southsea, Portsmouth – there’s a twist however, if we can only fill 4 of those 5 places, I will put myself forward for doing the event myself – “WHOA There Matt” I hear them shout, “10 miles is a long, hard exhausting effort – and you’re hardly Mr Endurance” (they’re very patronising eh!) BUT – I defy them, not only that, I intend to go fully dressed – in one of PETA’s most torturous items of clothing, the chicken costume! This virtual sweat shop on legs has been known to make people pass out with the heat and there’s no scope for toilet breaks either – Did I mention that you should register?? Pretty please with a cherry on top??

Your ‘ever so slightly worried’ Matt

Over the past few months a lively debate has been taking place between PETA and the ASA (those eager beavers at the Advertising Standards Authority) over whether a PETA leaflet that describes the abuse inflicted upon chickens for KFC is offensive and violates the ASA’s Code. The good news is; we won – the ASA determined PETA had done nothing wrong!

So, some Britons think a picture of the Colonel slashing up chickens is offensive? Well, you know what? KFC’s suppliers keep chickens kept locked up in tiny cages, throw them in scalding hot water and then slit their throats - that’s offensive. The facts that PETA give are always the truth; we simply serve to get them out to the general public. We do have freedom of speech in this country, right? Anyway, we won, we won!

In an effort to transform Tesco’s welfare standards for chickens, TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is raising cash to get his resolution to the supermarket chain’s shareholders. In the resolution he urges for new minimum welfare standards, including lower stocking densities and more environmental stimuli for the birds. Apparently, Tesco wanted nearly £90,000 to pay for the printing and postage costs, so he went about raising the money himself, with the help of CIWF. Though I’d love it if chickens weren’t bred, slaughtered and purchased for human consumption, you gotta admit his efforts are worthy of some respect. Especially when you find out that he put in £30,000 of his own money.

But the people here at PETA aren’t exactly over the moon that in an auction to help raise the cash, a fishing trip worth over £3,000 is in the loot. Here’s an email that got sent to the TV chef - let’s hope he drops the trip. I’ll keep you posted.

“Dear Chef Hugh,

I am writing on behalf of PETA to thank you for your efforts to reform the way Tesco treats chickens and to ask that you drop the fishing expedition from your list of auction items. If you agree to drop the fishing trip, we will happily donate £2,000 toward your shareholder efforts with Tesco.

To put it graphically, imagine reaching up to pluck a tasty apple from a tree and finding your hand suddenly impaled by a metal hook that drags you—the whole weight of your body pulling on that one hand—out of the air and into an atmosphere in which you cannot breathe. This is exactly what fish experience when they are hooked for “sport.”

Many people grow up fishing without ever considering the terror and suffering that fish endure when they’re impaled and yanked from the water—although their struggling and gasping should be a tip-off. Anglers rarely realise, let alone stop to contemplate, that fish are complex individuals who communicate with each other and have likes and dislikes, friends and enemies. In fact, if anglers treated cats or dogs, or even chickens, the way they treat fish, they would be had up on charges of cruelty to animals.

We believe that you are a kind man who would never dream of hooking a dog through the mouth and dragging her behind your car. We hope therefore that you will reconsider and drop the fishing trip from this auction.

Thank you again for your consistent and outspoken opposition to factory farming and for championing chicken welfare, for they are certainly the most abused farmed animals.

We look forward to hearing back from you.”

Image: Ecorazzi / CC

Sigh. To have KT Tunstall’s looks and knee-trembling singing voice… But the award-winning Scottish lass, who was catapulted to fame with Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, is much, much more than that - she’s a heroine to every single chicken suffering and dying for KFC restaurants all over the world. You may remember my telling you that all chickens killed for KFCs in Canada will be given better lives and gentler deaths, but they’ll have no such luck here in the UK - unless they have a helping hand from people like you who care. And KT is not one to mumble in the corner about it! Read the letter below that she sent to every single KFC restaurant manager in Scotland, along with a shocking DVD, pressuring the company to stop its suppliers’ worst abuses of chickens. Thanks KT!

I am so unbelievably excited about this. PETA US has officially ended their campaign against KFC in Canada following negotiations that led to drastic changes in the way chickens will be raised and killed for Canadian KFCs. Before I divulge the details, just a word that these KFCs in Canada operate separately from KFC elsewhere – including KFCs in the UK – so the boycott here continues. Anyway, moving on …

Following months of closed-door negotiations between PETA US and the company that coordinates the purchasing of chickens for all Canadian KFCs, 100 percent of its chickens killed for Canadian KFCs will be purchased (through a phase-in programme) from suppliers that use ‘controlled-atmosphere killing’ (CAK), which is the least cruel method of bird slaughter available. I mean, killing birds for food (or any reason) sucks, but I assure you, this is a much kinder way of doing it.

So how does it work? CAK replaces the birds’ oxygen with a mixture of non-poisonous inert gasses to put them “to sleep.” So we can say goodbye to broken bones, abuse by workers (as workers never handle live birds this way), electric shocks, live throat slitting and scalding.

The living conditions, breeding and farming practices are also set to improve, as well as forming an animal welfare advisory council. And here’s the bit that goes that extra bit further for me: the company will also allow PETA US to review its animal welfare audit forms every six months. Nice one!

But wait for it, there’s more. Who loves vegan chicken? Who doesn’t?! Those lucky so-and-sos in Canada will be able to get fried-vegan chicken in 461 of its 711 stores. That’s 65 percent of KFCs in Canada! Man, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. But alas, here in sunny, sunny England we continue our campaign against KFC.

Well done to everyone who played a part in securing this amazing success. As they say, every drop in the ocean…

Award-winning Canadian actor Ryan Gosling has fired off a letter to the CEO of Priszm Income Fund (which operates most KFCs in Canada) pushing for an end to their suppliers’ worst abuses of chickens on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. The Half Nelson and Fracture star proves he is more than just a pretty face, calling upon the company to make the compassionate choice and adopt better welfare standards for chickens killed for KFC. In the letter, he says:

Image: DeadlineHollywoodDaily / CC

Yesterday’s Independent was all about the eggs. Should we eat them, shouldn’t we? No we shouldn’t. Should we care about battery farming? Yes we should.

On the same day in the same paper, another two articles appeared – Going to work on the egg and a comment piece by animal champion Joanna Lumley.

It’s great how factory farming has been getting such a decent amount of coverage over the past few months. Yeah free-range is better than battery, that’s a given, but what’s even better is avoiding them all together and going vegan. Why? Read on…

A KFC in Camden has been forced to hire bouncers due to increasing amounts of violence inside and outside the fast-food restaurant. Stabbings, kick-ins, people being bottled and wafts of cannabis have all been reported, forcing the chicken-foes to hire security staff. Well, need I say more? Not only is eating animal flesh like KFC chicken bad for animals and your health, but I’d avoid the ‘restaurants’ all together if there are these kind of shenanigans going on…