Can sex sell animal rights and vegetarianism?
VIDEO: Can sex sell fake chicken?
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent their bikini-clad Lettuce Ladies to a KFC outlet at Sherbrook Street and Notre Dame Avenue at lunch hour Wednesday, seemingly using skin and salad swimsuits to do just that.
"(We're) offering KFC's new faux-chicken sandwich, which is available at 65 per cent of the stores in Canada," said Nicole Matthews, PETA campaigner, who wore a mock-lettuce-leaf bikini. "It's a cholesterol-free and cruelty-free alternative."
Matthews and Virginia Fort, female campaigners from the Norfolk, Va., PETA headquarters stood at KFC and offered Winnipeggers a two-for-one coupon for a vegetarian soy-based burger, a new offering on KFC's menu in Canada.
Ryan Leclaire, 17, was having lunch when the Lettuce Ladies came by. They may have persuaded him to turn over a new leaf in his fast-food eating.
"It was actually really good," Leclaire said. "I think it's a good idea. I think killing anything is kind of wrong."
PETA said the advent of the faux-chicken burger marks a June agreement with KFC, ending five years of PETA lobbying aimed at introducing new Canadian farm practices for KFC suppliers.
A statement from PETA said the agreement includes a phase-in period to have all suppliers to Canadian KFC franchises switch to controlled-atmosphere stunning, or CAS, to kill chickens, improve their animal-husbandry practices and form an animal welfare advisory panel.
In Canada, CAS is a federally approved slaughter method for poultry. With one type of CAS, chickens in transport cages are put into a chamber mainly filled with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen. The poultry lose consciousness and die.
"Well chickens -- maybe people aren't familiar -- are as intelligent as dogs and cats," Matthews said. "They think, they feel pain. The workers also, you know, there's less injuries with controlled-atmosphere killing. And in this way the workers will have less contact with the animals so there's less of a chance for them to abuse them."
There are two problems with the KFC-PETA agreement.
Only one of about 61 federally registered poultry-processing plants in the country uses CAS, said Erica Charlton, technical director at the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council. That plant is in Nova Scotia. The feasibility of the other 60 plants across Canada switching to CAS technology is "not good," said Charlton. "It means massive capital expenditures to switch over."
Charlton also said research scientists do not agree on use of CAS. "The truth is the verdict is not out on CAS being more humane than electric," she said.
A 2008 statement by the animal advocacy group American Humane said that "research is not conclusive or complete at this time to support Controlled Atmosphere Stunning (CAS) as the preferred method of poultry slaughter."
will.tremain@freepress.mb.ca
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