Tyson, Perdue in Hot Water Over Chicken Recall

PETA Calls On Meat Companies to Honor Chickens’ Wasted Lives by Donating Vegan Food to Charity

For Immediate Release:
January 31, 2019

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

Because more than 120,000 pounds of chicken nuggets from Perdue and Tyson Foods have been recalled due to mislabeling and suspected contamination, PETA has urged the companies to do something to make amends for wasting the lives of over 20,000 birds by donating vegan food, such as Beyond Chicken Strips from Beyond Meat—a company that Tyson has invested in—to charities benefitting the homeless and malnourished.

“While eating meat is completely unnecessary today, these gentle birds died violently for no reason whatsoever,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on Perdue and Tyson to take a small step to honor these birds’ memory by sending meat-free meals to people in need.”

As PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—reveals in its “Chicken in Reverse” video, birds killed for their flesh are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are often cut while they’re still conscious and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

Perdue was recently in PETA’s crosshairs over its new labels targeting millennials, which show a happy cartoon chicken enjoying the sunshine and make irrelevant, misleading claims about animal welfare.

PETA recommends eating tasty vegan chicken nuggets instead and offers a free vegan starter kit full of recipes, tips, and more. The letters to the companies are available here and here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.