From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 08:41 PM IST

In the wake of KFC Canada's agreement to dramatically improve its animal welfare standards, PETA is calling on the parent company of KFC in India, Yum! Restaurants International, to follow KFC Canada's lead by taking the following actions:

· Phase-in 100 per cent of its purchases of chicken meat from suppliers which use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK) – the least cruel form of poultry slaughter ever developed.

· Improve its animal welfare audit criteria to reduce the number of broken bones and other injuries suffered by birds.

· Urge its suppliers to adopt better practices, including improved lighting, lower stocking-density and ammonia levels, and a phase-out of growth-promoting drugs and breeding practices which painfully cripple chickens.

· Form an animal welfare advisory panel.

KFC suppliers worldwide continue to drug and breed chickens to grow so large that many become crippled under their own weight. Birds' throats are cut while they are still conscious, and many birds are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. Investigations around the world into factory farms which supply KFC revealed many abuses. Chickens were stuffed into overcrowded warehouses, and some were immobilised by leg deformities. Injured chickens also went without medical care.

"We are now redoubling our efforts to convince KFC in India and around the world to make the animal welfare improvements which KFC Canada has made", says PETA KFC campaign coordinator Tajinder Singh Vig. "If KFC Canada can improve the lives and deaths of its chickens, KFC in India can too."

PETA's letter to Yum! Restaurants International Managing Director Niren Chaudhary is available upon request. For more information about PETA US's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, please visit KentuckyFriedCruelty.com.

Source: Press Release Distribution via India PRwire