PETA Launches Rightly Repulsive Campaign Focusing on Poop in Packaged Chicken

PETA Wants Package Labels That Fess Up to Foul Fecal Contamination

For Immediate Release:
October 10, 2022

Contact:
Robin Goist 202-483-7382

Following a report that the federal government allows 25% of ground chicken to contain salmonella—which causes food poisoning and can lead to reactive arthritis—a new PETA video warns consumers that even more horrifying contaminants can lurk inside packages of chicken, including E. coli, which causes digestive problems and can be fatal. Hitting airwaves in Atlanta and Baton Rouge—hometowns of fast-food chains Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane’s, respectively—the TV spot follows a woman who can’t shake the unsettling fact that those bacteria—as well as listeria and infectious campylobacter—are commonly found in packages of chicken and come from poop.

In the video, PETA’s protagonist reads a news alert on her phone: “If you’re eating chicken, you’re eating poop.” Disgusted, she can hear, see, and think of nothing else. Later, as a party guest is about to eat her “famous chicken pasta,” she knocks the plate out of his hands and shouts, “Don’t eat it! There’s poop in there!” The punchy pro-vegan message is part of a new push from PETA for fast-food chains and grocery stores to label chicken packages with the amount of fecal matter they contain.

“Knowing that chicken parts are basically marinating in feces is enough to make anyone switch to vegan vittles,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on companies to ‘cut the crap’ and label their products honestly or, better yet, sell vegan chicken instead.”

PETA points out that the federal government only has a policy against visible feces on the production line and that faster slaughter speeds now increase the risk of contamination as well as improper stunning. According to Consumer Reports, about 65% of packages of raw chicken breasts contain E. coli. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even recommends not washing chicken for fear that dangerous bacteria will spread to kitchen surfaces.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers free vegan starter kits. For more information, please visit PETA’s website or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.