PR.com (Allison Kugel): What’s going on with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)? What should people know about right this minute?

Dan Mathews of PETA: Our biggest ongoing campaign is targeting KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken). They still boil birds alive in de-feathering tanks, and they still use such crude gathering methods that they snap the legs and wings of chickens in their gathering process, shoving them into crates. We have been after them, like we were after McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s before them, to upgrade their humane policies and guidelines. We had good luck, and we fought hard and won with McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s, but KFC is dragging their feet. They’re not making any changes. It has been a real, real tough battle. People don’t realize that chickens are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act. There are some minimal guidelines for pigs and cows, but for chickens it’s anything goes. As a result, KFC gets away with a lot of really horrific cruelties.

PR.com: Why are there no guidelines for chickens?

Dan Mathews of PETA: Because when they passed the Humane Slaughter Act back in the 1960s, the only way they were able to get it through congress was by signing a deal with the poultry trade to exclude them. Birds are small and they didn’t want to have to look out for their welfare. They’re kept in such deplorable conditions, that they made the case back then that if they actually had to look out for chickens’ welfare, they would not be able to make the profits that they wanted. Well, now times have changed and people are wanting to make the case to KFC, as well as to other fast food outlets, that the treatment of animals is of primary importance even for people who are not vegetarians.

PR.com: I think it was in your book (Committed, A Rabble-Rouser’s Memoir) that you were saying that chickens actually have the same amount of intelligence as dogs?

Dan Mathews of PETA: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. This comes from the animal behaviorists. Animal studies that have come out in the last twenty years [show] how fascinating, how evolved and how sophisticated all kinds of animals are. From chickens, to even lobsters who decorate their dens.

PR.com: Why do we consider certain animals’ lives to be sacred, for instance in the United States we’re obviously very protective of cats and dogs, while other animals’ lives are considered dispensable?

Dan Mathews of PETA: I think a lot of it goes back to our upbringing. We grow up looking at TV commercials. From my generation it was TV commercials from McDonald’s where hamburgers actually grew on the hamburger patch. They weren’t from cows. Charlie the Tuna tasted so good and he couldn’t wait to get caught and eaten. And there are other ads that are geared toward kids that make it all seem like fun and games. It was a very interesting experience I had in Colorado, when I was giving a talk to a whole class of third graders. I was invited to talk about the fur issue and one of the kids said, “When we eat meat, do they have to kill animals?” When I said, “Yes they do, and they’re kept in pretty awful conditions,” the kids’ faces just fell. They couldn’t believe it. They looked like they had been lied to, and I’m sure they had been (laughs). Parents, they just avoid this topic altogether. Part of it is because they are led to believe that meat is a healthy thing for their kids to eat. That idea is certainly changing now that we know how bad meat is for us, health-wise. But also, if you’ve got to lie to your kid about something, you should realize there’s something wrong with it. A lot of kids went home that night and refused to eat meat, because they couldn’t believe animals had to die for it.

click to read entire interview with Dan Mathews