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Game of Chicken
PETA cries fowl over Subway animal 'abuses'
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Business New Haven
11/24/2003
By: BNH
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MILFORD - Earlier this month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has dispatched a letter to sandwich chain Subway urging the franchise giant to eliminate what it says are the worst abuses of chickens killed for Subway restaurants. PETA also asks Subway to adopt improved animal-welfare standards recommended by industry experts.
PETA's November 13 letter comes in the wake of a high-profile campaign against KFC, which has included more than 1,300 demonstrations at KFC restaurants all over the world, as well as celebrity support from hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, rock icons Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and others. PETA officials say their group has persuaded other fast-food restaurants, including McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, to adopt stricter standards.
"PETA is giving Subway the opportunity to stop some of the worst abuses before the gloves come off," says PETA campaign coordinator Dan Shannon. "If Subway executives treated cats or dogs the way the chickens killed for their sandwiches are treated, they could go to prison on felony cruelty charges."
According to a letter sent November 12 to the CEO of Foster Poultry Farms in Livingston, Calif., PETA is specifically "concerned about inhumane conditions on factory farms, manual-catching practices that result in injuries to birds, and the use of electrical stunning at slaughterhouses, which involves violently hanging live birds on shackles and routinely scalding and cutting the throats of conscious birds."
Among other reforms, PETA has urged the use of mechanical catching devices, which it says reduce injuries and suffering inflicted on poultry, as well as killing by inert gas, which it says is painless.
Subway spokesperson Les Winograd confirms receipt of the PETA letter, saying, "It is something we would forward to our R&D department to investigate, since they work most closely" with the companies that supply poultry products to Subway.
According to Hoover's Inc., Subway is the world's No. 3 fast-food company, behind McDonald's and Yum! Brands, with 20,000 locations in 70 countries and reported 2002 sales of $500 million.
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