Animal Advocates Watchdog

Failure to Prosecute Monstrous Cruelty at KFC Supplier

From: PETA <newsmanager@peta.org>
To: <healing_hands1@telus.net>

Urgent update: Failure to Prosecute Monstrous Cruelty at KFC Supplier
Dear Friend:

We need your help to make sure that animal abusers are prosecuted. As you may recall, in July, PETA revealed the results of an investigation into a KFC supplier in Moorefield, W.Va., where workers were caught on video kicking and stomping on chickens and violently slamming them against floors and walls. Workers also ripped off the animals’ beaks, twisted off their heads, spat tobacco into their eyes and mouths, and spray painted their faces—all while the chickens were still alive. Dan Rather echoed the views of all compassionate people when he said on CBS Evening News, “There’s no mistaking what [the video] depicts: cruelty to animals, chickens horribly mistreated before they’re slaughtered for a fast-food chain.”

For more information about the investigation, including links to the video and all the case materials, please visit PETA.org.

On January 11, Ginny Conley, head of the West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute, reportedly decided that because these were “chickens in a slaughterhouse,” criminal charges would not be filed. She was also quoted as saying that this “needs to be handled more on a regulatory end than prosecuting someone criminally,” even though there are absolutely no federal or state regulations dealing with humane poultry slaughter and despite the fact that these sadistic acts were clear violations of the state’s cruelty-to-animals statute.

If dogs or cats had suffered this abuse, felony charges would have been filed long ago. Please remind officials that chickens are just as capable of experiencing pain and suffering as cats and dogs and that these acts are not exempt from the state cruelty-to-animals statute.

What You Can Do
• Please write respectful letters to the prosecutor who decided not to file charges in this case and ask that she reconsider and file felony cruelty-to-animals charges against all those responsible for the torture of chickens at Pilgrim’s Pride in Moorefield, W.Va:

Ginny Conley, Acting Executive Director
West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Institute
90 MacCorkle Ave. S.W., Ste. 202
South Charleston, WV 25303
304-558-3348
304-558-3360 (fax)

• Please also contact the governor and governor-elect of West Virginia to politely ask that they use their full authority to ensure that a special prosecutor is appointed, as requested by the judge in the case:

Governor Bob Wise
Governor-Elect Joe Manchin

Office of the Governor
State Capitol Complex
1900 Kanawha Blvd. E.
Charleston, WV 25305
304-558-2000 (outside of West Virginia)
1-888-438-2731 (within West Virginia)
304-558-2722 (fax)
Governor@WVGov.org

Please forward this to as many sympathetic people as you can. For the sake of all chickens in slaughterhouses, we need all the calls, letters, and faxes that we can muster. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us at Info@peta.org. Thanks again for everything that you do for animals.

Kind regards,

Cem Akin, Senior Research Associate
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

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Failure to Prosecute Monstrous Cruelty at KFC Supplier
Poultry to be added to U.S. Humane Methods of Slaughter Act

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