The Onion spoofs Yum Brands

[Robin Garr]

This is hilarious! But that guy can't really be Novak, can he?

Wearable fast food feedbags

No, its not Novak.

On a related note, did you see the article on the front of the CJ Business section today? Yum brands agrees to purchase chickens that have been gassed instead of electrocuted!?!?!?
PETA strikes a blow for chickens everywhere!

Hilarious. Chain-thinking at its finest! Oh sure, its a spoof today, but when the higher ups at Yum corporate see that, the R&D wheels will begin turning....*shudder*

[Robin Garr]

On a related note, did you see the article on the front of the CJ Business section today? Yum brands agrees to purchase chickens that have been gassed instead of electrocuted!?!?!?
PETA strikes a blow for chickens everywhere!

I'm hardly a card-carrying PETA member, Ed, but I wouldn't laugh off that change as insignificant in terms of humaneness.

Color me naive but I wish PETA would spend a tenth of its budget on figuring out how to curb cruelty to humans. Chickens are low in my personal pecking order.

[Robin Garr]

Color me naive but I wish PETA would spend a tenth of its budget on figuring out how to curb cruelty to humans.

Now, that would be a plan I could get behind!

Chickens are low in my personal pecking order.

I hear ya, Ed. That said, though, I do think it's worth some effort to prod the industry in the direction of humaneness in meat production. I don't make a big deal out of it in my writing, but I do care enough to put my money where my mouth is in terms of buying naturally produced, local meat and poultry for home consumption.

On a related note, did you see the article on the front of the CJ Business section today? Yum brands agrees to purchase chickens that have been gassed instead of electrocuted!?!?!?
PETA strikes a blow for chickens everywhere!

I'm hardly a card-carrying PETA member, Ed, but I wouldn't laugh off that change as insignificant in terms of humaneness.

Let's see . . . which is more "humane" to poultry:

1. Give the chickens, turkeys, et al an electric shock which puts them instantly to sleep, then do a kill by slitting their throats (in essence a Kosher or Halal kill) which kills them before they can wake up, or

2. Put them all in a chamber, and insert gas, so that those in one end get to watch their brethren gasp and slowly fall, waiting for their own turn to choke?

Think for a minute: the first way above requires several people to put turkeys & chicken on a conveyor, and requires at least one person (often several) in a kill room, while the second just gasses all poultry in the truck, and takes nobody in a kill room and fewer loading conveyors (since the birds are already dead). Ask yourself why companies are spending MORE money on processing this way instead of saving money with PETA's methods! Could it be - perhaps - that PETA likes picketing more than humaneness???

Back in my mis-spent youth, I had 13 turkey plants and one chicken plant under my control, and PETA has a separate agenda than just looking after animals.

(BTW, sometime watch Penn & Teller's "Bull-Sh*" on Showtime - the segment on PETA is fascinating!)

[Robin Garr]

Let's see . . . which is more "humane" to poultry:

As stated, Andrew, I would agree. My problem is that there's so much misinformation out there - and so much controversy - that I'd like to know more before I decide. Your information sounds compelling, but would you mind telling me where you got it? No offense, but if it came from Yum (or from PETA), I would be more skeptical than if it came from a disinterested source.

Restated, I don't trust Yum's PR a whole lot more than I trust PETA.

Lets add a little flavor as they get gassed… I say use some sort of wood chip smoke to take them down...

For two years I had P&L responsibility for Butterball Turkey, and for another year I was Marketing Manager for all other Swift poultry. With Butterball, I had responsibility for 13 poultry plants.

At one time I examined the possibility of certifying Butterball to be Kosher and Halal. There were two main problems:
1. The main plant had separate men's and women's rest rooms, but the walls did not go floor to ceiling, but were rather just divided; and
2. The processing plant that made the oil (or injecting solution) also - in a different part of the plant, but without a double wall - rendered lard.

In investigating the Kosher kill, we examined a number of alternative kill methods, and kept coming back that - although more traumatic for the employees - the kill utilized was actually the least traumatic for the birds.

Now, an admission: this all happened 25 or so years ago. While I can't guarantee that the system hasn't changed, from the article it sure sounds identical.

And, I have a lot of trouble with an organization whose main ads AGAINST Kosher/Halal slaughter juxtaposes pictures of slaughtered animals with pictures of Holocost victims, and then turns around and lobbies for gassing as "humane" . . . there's something wrong there somewhere!

I will grant you that there are new gasses, new procedures, and maybe what was done is not optimal. But - given PETA's background, its advertising, its refusal to allow medical testing on animals, et al - it goes to such an extreme that I end up in a position where I can't countenance anything they recommend.

[Robin Garr]

For two years I had P&L responsibility for Butterball Turkey, and for another year I was Marketing Manager for all other Swift poultry. With Butterball, I had responsibility for 13 poultry plants.

Thanks, Andrew! quite a report from the inside. Years ago or no, I certainly have no problem stipulating you as a serious expert.

PETA is by definition a terrorist group. That rich liberals support it and Bush conservatives condone it is amusing.

[Robin Garr]

PETA is by definition a terrorist group.

That seems a bit overheated to me, Tony. Got any solid evidence to back that assertion? I spent a little time on Google and couldn't find any substantive, mainstream sources making such a claim, although quite a number of right-wing bloggers do.

PETA is by definition a terrorist group.

That seems a bit overheated to me, Tony. Got any solid evidence to back that assertion?

Actually, I don't have any solid evidence to back that assertion. However, the use of emotions in lieu of rational arguments to turn people to your cause is a sure sign of terroristic tactics. Anything from the web reporting about bloody chicken costumes in front of fifth graders comes from Fox, so I won't bother.

From PETA:

‘Kentucky Fried Cruelty’ with Pamela Anderson
The roughly 1 billion chickens killed each year for KFC's buckets are crammed by the tens of thousands into excrement-filled sheds that stink of ammonia fumes.

No evidence, sir, but not overheated. The things that they say are designed to provoke an emotional response, and I said that 'by definition' they are a terrorist group. I cannot provide evidence that they actually broke into animal research labs, but it has been reported. But reading from their own website, I think that they are trying to scare me into a position where I refuse to eat KFC; my definition, a terrorist group.

When I was a kid my grandmother used to "wring" their necks.....ouch. Not very humane I suppose but made a great fried chicken.

I don't really care how they kill chicken so long is there is some respect given to the product...People in PETA must have alot more time on their hands than I do.