Game-Changing ‘I, Chicken’ Virtual Reality Experience to Cause Flap in Phoenix

Will Giving Football Fans a True Bird’s-Eye View—Plus $1,000 Worth of Vegan Wings—Inspire Them to Swear Off Game-Day Chicken?

For Immediate Release:
January 23, 2015

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

What do chickens see, hear, and feel before they wind up on Super Bowl Sunday’s wing platters? PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—will give football fans the inside scoop on Monday, when it brings the high-tech “I, Chicken” to Phoenix just in time for Super Bowl XLIX, along with over $1,000 worth of meat-free vegan wings for fans of the gridiron to sample from local vegan restaurant Green.

When:   Monday, January 26, 12 p.m.

Where:  Cesar Chavez Plaza, 201 W. Washington St., Phoenix

“I, Chicken” was made possible by a grant from The Simpsons co-creator and noted philanthropist Sam Simon. The project couples cutting-edge virtual reality (VR) hardware—including wireless VR goggles, motion-capture cameras, and a powerful computer—with guidance from leading VR psychologists in order to immerse participants in a world where they can flap their wings, communicate with other chickens, take dust baths, and engage in other natural chicken behavior. But as participants soon learn, life for chickens slaughtered for food—300 million of whom will be killed just for Super Bowl Sunday alone—is no walk in the park.

“On Super Bowl Sunday, enough chicken wings will be eaten to circle the Grand Canyon 120 times—yet every chicken is a thinking, feeling being, and it’s not sporting to snuff them out for a snack,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “PETA’s ‘I, Chicken’ experience can inspire fans to swear off the wings at this year’s big game and cry foul at cruelty to animals.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.