ConAgra Throws a Bone to PETA
Packaged-food giant ConAgra will urge its poultry providers to use a more humane slaughter technique, according to this AP story. With the new procedure, euphemistically named “controlled-atmosphere killing,” a poultry processor herds the chickens into a room and sucks out all the air. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals prefers this method to the standard procedure: Shock the bird and slit its throat.
The decision makes ConAgra look like they’re brushing away an irritating gnat: The corporation won’t require the new procedure from its suppliers and at any rate the consideration for a gentler slaughter bypasses the fact that most factory-farmed chickens are forced into tiny cages, debeaked, and subjected to all manner of inhumane treatment. So rather than give a bird a death as miserable as its life, ConAgra is simply asking for vendors to consider choosing a less miserable death.
Doesn’t seem like they’re solving the right problem, does it?
Great post, in that it made my eyeballs hurt and my blood pressure shoot up. I suspect those “humane” gas chambers are more for the workers — and the assembly line efficiency — than they are for the chickens.