Is Frank Perdue\u27s advertising just a pile of poultry puffery hiding the brutal realities of. an inhumane industry

Animal Rights International

English

Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy

Frank, Are You Telling the Truth About Your Chickens?

WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)

WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 10-20-1989 Frank, Are You Telling the Truth About Your Chickens? Animal Rights International Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/percam Recommended Citation Animal Rights International, "Frank, Are You Telling the Truth About Your Chickens?" (1989). Perdue Campaign. 2. https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/percam/2 This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact wbisr-info@wellbeingintl.org. THE NF.W YORK TIMES, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 10, 1989 Al7 FRANK, ARE YOU TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR CHICKENS? Is Frank Perdue's advertising just a pile of poultry puffery hiding the brutal realities of. an inhumane industry? For nearly 20 years. Frank P<!rdue has crowed about the cn?aLure comforts of his chickens. paint· ing a picture of pampe,-ed pets living in "reson,  which he likes to describe as "chicken heaven:· He says in one ad that they "eat better than you do" and in another that "your kids never had it so goodf'This farmyan! fantasy has dearly hdped Mr .  Perdue to parlay the misery of millions of chickens into a jumbo N!$I egg. And many of us have been happy io sii back.and pay 111> to 20 cerus more per pound to gobble up this feathe,y Oct ion. In reality, life in Mr. Perd-'s chicken "resorts"�lns with painful dismember• ment and ends with electrocution-with a lifetime of stress crowded in between.. Resort life for a" pampen,d" Perdue chicken be­gins painfully with di,.,,,emberment as the young bird's beak is burned off with a hoc knife. ,\Ir. Perdue is not. strictly sr>eakinll, a farmer at all Hebreedschicks thatare"designea -genetically speaking-to grow as rapidly as possible on the least 411}0Unt of food. This technique often pro­duces chickens that are so oversized for their age that they are unable to support their own weight and live out their lives on painfully cril)l)ied � Mr. P<!rdue's main business is slauglucr and packaging. The actual raising of chickens is left to contract � to ,.-horn the debeaked chicks are trucked when they are a few days old .  After havln& their be.aka barned of! with a hot knife, chiclwna struUle t!uouth life -often with less than one square lootof llvii\4 space per bird. Contract� typically crowd 25.000 birds into one long windowless shed (and sometimes as many as 75.000 or more). In these conditions eachbirdcanexpeaaboutonesquarefoo(or less of living >pace for its entire life. Obviously as the bird reaches iis full sin of about four pounds. living conditions and the attendant problems become even more stressful. Attacks on each other. cannibalism. di- and sudden death are all by-products of this severe overcrowding and the "farmer" resorts 10 drugs and debeaking to discourage these man-induced '"vices". Mr. Perdue proudly markets NS birds as oven stuffers!" but the bird in your  oven may have four times the space it had when i t  was alive) The unnatural density of today's poultry sheds (and filthy litter which can not be cleaned while so many birds occupy the shed) often results in overhealing. suffocating air which. when com· bined with abnormally warm weather. can lead to death and disease. Technology frequently allows ju:M one person to "take care or· tens of thousands of chickens and provides little oppor, tuniiy for real interaction between farmer and bird. On a daily ba.sis he may move through the shed 10 remove dead chickens. but the sudden intrusion of straniiers or even a loud noise can set off mass hysteria which moves in waves from end to end of the barn as the jittery chickens pile up against Che walls ten deep with hundreds dead or injured. • Ydlow sltiM or ptJZ1)1e prose? Mr. Perdue says NS birds are healthier because of their yellow skins-consumer studies say nonsense, and the reflulatory i&roups sayfoull ,\.Ir. Perdue copied the yellow skin gimmick from a company in Maine which found it could charge a few more cent> per pound aher putting skin coloring additive in their chicken feed He has since been restrained from making any health claims based on ydlow skin. A lot of stral\ge things go into Mr. Perdue· s chicken feed includ· iflll ground up dead chickens. Not surprisingly, Mr. P<!rdue has ch= to focus on marigold petals. � at Mr. Perdue·s plant, chickens �Proa.ch the 1tates of "chicken heaven" pinned upside down as their heads are dr&Ued throqh. an electrified water tl'oullh prior to havi"' their throats cut. The farms of yesio,rday with contented animals in naruraJ surroundings are almost extinct. They have been replaced by corporate faaorfes­'cramped indoor facilities-where nature. biologi­<:4' necessity and any reasonable consideration towards animals are spumed in favor o( the mas­sive profits that can be realized by treating ani ­m.,l.s as a commodity. And the high mortality rates associated with intensive confinement are merelyconside� an "incidental cos,·  in an insensitive business. ls there anyone who has e,q,loited this inhumane system more pror.tably than ,\Ir. P<!rdue with his misleading depiction of"Chicken Heaven"'? Mr. Perdue appears to be  equally callous to NS workers. And when they tried to or(anize, he quickly wi"'ed NS way to the mob for help. Re«nt repons on National Public Radio and in the Washington Post depict a work environment at Perdu,,s Le,-iston. NC plant where employees unable to function due to work-related injuries were routinely fired. According 10 a National Health Service doctor. up to 50 percent of the workers in that (actory are afflicted ,-ith repetitive motion syndrome. a potentially crippling disorder of the hands or wrists. caused by having to cut up to  7 S chickens per minute. A Perdue personnel memo stared that it was normal procedure for about 60 percent of workers to go to the nurse for pain killers and to have their hands bandaged. Donna Bazemore. a former eml)lo}'ee, told NPR that she'd seen women urinating and vomiting on the work line because they were not allowed to leave it ro go to the bathroom. None of the Perdue factories is  unionized. And in 1986. Frank Perdue told the president's commission on or­ganized crime that he sought help from organized crime r,gures to keep it thet way. Here's how you can help Mr.  Perdue·s chicken literature says that when you' re unhappy you should·· squa"'k to Frank'". You can write to Mr .  Perdue at: PERDUE FARMS INC .. P.O. BOX 1537. SALISBURY. MD 21801. Tell Mr. Perdue that you will not buy h.is chickens UAtil he does the lollowin(: 1. Tells the truth Provides a complete list or his slaughtemouses and contract farms. and allows the media unan­nounced access to film and repon what life is really like (or the Perdue chicken. Stops misrepresenting the realiti"s of factory intensive poultry "(arming .. in his advertisinll, 2. Gives the birds some quality of life Guarantees each bird two feet by two feet of livingspace. Doesn't sound like much to Mk. does it? :S. Starts a research. program Investigates more humane methods of raising poultry. Almost all animals including calves. pigs and cattle raised for food suffer on (actory farms. Your involvement and opinion can change this inhumane system. You can Nn this ad. This ad was produced by the Coalition /or Non-Violent Food. a project of Animal Rights lntemarional. and is not copy­righted. We invite you or  your organization 10 run it with )·our name. Contact us if )"OU \l.'Ould like a cam"ra-ready copy of this ad. r-----------7 l=s���. I I e.o . .tl', 1>..__s,.. I I "'·-Yo.t. NY 10024 I ', 0 $.-,-.d.,,._,, • .,,,,.,_.,.,a1>.,u.�;,..1ou,<1o .... .., •, th.! w.Kffln41 ol faccory farm M1mals. I O Hff'C:·smytaxd.tduc.,lblitcontnbuoonco.-\RJ t<>�n I I thl .. rd ,wicd .do. I I I I _,_..,N.__________ I ,----------1,c... _____ _.. ___ z.c..,.__t '------------� 

https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=percam

Frank, Are You Telling the Truth About Your Chickens?

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy

WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)