PETA to Woman Upset by Part of Dead Chicken in Chicken Soup: Go Vegan

Group Rushes Distraught Broomfield Mother Month’s Supply of ‘No Chicken Noodle Soup’

For Immediate Release:
March 20, 2014

Contact:
Sophia Charchuk 202-483-7382

This morning, PETA sent a letter to Broomfield resident Nicole Beckman-Montgomery urging her to make sure she doesn’t get any more unappetizing surprises in her food by going vegan. Beckman-Montgomery recently made news after she found what she believed to be a tiny dead chicken embryo in the Campbell’s Chicken & Stars soup that she had prepared for her daughter. According to news reports, an independent laboratory has determined that the object wasn’t a whole dead chicken but probably a piece of tendon or cartilage. In the letter, PETA points out that every bowl of chicken soup contains parts of dead chickens that are simply disguised by being cut into chunks.

PETA—which is sending Beckman-Montgomery a one-month’s supply of No Chicken Noodle Soup from Amy’s Kitchen—also explains what happens to chickens before they become soup:

“This incident serves as an important reminder that the animals who are often served up on a plate or in a bowl as shreds, chunks, or slices were all unique individuals who felt pain and fear and didn’t want to die,” writes PETA Special Projects Manager Alicia Woempner. “By going vegan, you can save more than 100 animals a year from this kind of cruelty.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Nicole Beckman-Montgomery follows.

March 20, 2014

Nicole Beckman-Montgomery

Dear Ms. Beckman-Montgomery,

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 3 million members and supporters, including thousands across Colorado, in reference to the bottle of Campbell’s Chicken & Stars soup that you recently opened that contained a piece of meat resembling a small dead chicken. I understand how upsetting it must have been to see what appeared to be an animal’s body in your daughter’s meal, and I hope that after having had this eye-opening experience, you and your family will stop eating all chickens (and cows, pigs, and fish, too) and go vegan. To help you get started, I’m sending you PETA’s vegetarian/vegan starter kit and a one-month supply of delicious, healthy No Chicken Noodle Soup made by Amy’s Kitchen.

This incident serves as an important reminder that the animals who are often served up on a plate or in a bowl as shreds, chunks, or slices were all unique individuals who felt pain and fear and didn’t want to die. Chickens, for example, have good memories and can even learn basic math skills. In nature, these birds would live in groups with their relatives and love and take care of their family members. In fact, mother chickens will often “talk” to their babies by clucking to them while they are still in their shells. But on factory farms, chickens are denied everything that is natural and important to them. They are crammed into filthy sheds by the tens of thousands and can suffer from severe ammonia burns from living amid their own waste. At the slaughterhouse, they are shackled upside down by their legs and have their throats slit while they are still conscious. Many birds are still alive when they are plunged into the scalding-hot water of the defeathering tank. By going vegan, you can save more than 100 animals a year from this kind of cruelty.

I urge you to take a few minutes to watch PETA’s “Glass Walls” video, narrated by Paul McCartney, about the cruelty inherent in raising and killing animals for food and to visit PETA.org for more tips and recipes that can help your family transition to a healthy vegan diet, which is free of cholesterol, cruelty, and, of course, dead animals. I wish you and your family all the best, and I hope you enjoy the No Chicken soup.

Kind regards,

Alicia Woempner
Special Projects Manager