PETA's "Chickens" Protest Jay Leno and McDonald's
by Karin Bennett
I thought that getting Tom Cruise to squirm uncomfortably during the premiere of The Jay Leno Show would be the program's most misguided attempt at "fun." Wrong.
Apparently, Jay Leno's stint as a teenage employee under the Golden Arches got execs at NBC and McDonald's thinking that the talk show host should feature a month-long promo for the fast-food giant on his new program.
With the news that McCruelty is slated for some prime-time exposure, out came PETA's "chickens." They greeted audiences lining up for yesterday's taping of The Jay Leno Show with news that McDonald's refuses to adopt an improved slaughter method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK).
McDonald's American suppliers still use an archaic killing method that causes countless birds to suffer broken wings and broken legs, have their throats cut while they're still conscious, and be scalded to death. Even McDonald's own advisers agree that the company should eliminate the worst abuses by switching to CAK, which is already used by McDonald's European suppliers.
Ever the optimists, we're crossing our fingers in the hope that Mr. Leno will use his influence to convince McDonald's to help billions of birds.
Stay tuned for updates.
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to take the message seriously when you dress up like a chicken to protest. Generally, if you wear a costume to protest; I tend to think you are a joke.
That said, I would actually support McDonald's switching to CAK methods since I do agree it's brutal the way chickens and turkey are currently slaughtered. I would assume that the CAK method must be significantly more expensive otherwise McDonald's would have switched along time ago since it can be agreed by almost everyone that CAK is by far the most humane way to slaughter poultry for consumption and their must be a significant economic disincentive for them not to do so. Perhaps they fear it would hurt business. The only way to make McDonald's switch is either to lobby congress to include poultry in the Humane Slaughter Act or launch an education campaign and force McDonald's to do it for fearing greater business losses. Pull one of those "Feed The Children" ads except with demonstrating the suffering of poultry in slaughter and you can pull at people's heart strings. Dancing around in chicken costumes won't get you anywhere - accept it might get you a sketch on "The Jay Leno Show" mocking you.
Side note: PETA 's article is a bit misleading though. It fails to mention McDonald's European suppliers use CAK to comply with EU regulations , so it's not really a voluntary decision of theirs. They phrase it as though McDonald's voluntarily enforced this and thus downplays the argument against the financial disincentive for McDonald's.
FOX and Burger King.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.