“Abby the Abused Chicken—a graphic, seven-foot-tall chicken
with a bloody broken wing, slit throat, and open wounds—and members of Mercy
For Animals have taken
to the road to tell Gordon Food Service that torturing chickens will not be
tolerated.
The eye-catching protests, part of a multi-city tour and the
latest in a series of demonstrations against the largest privately held
foodservice distributor in North America and operator of the Gordon Food
Service Store supermarket chain, follow the release of hidden-camera footage taken at a Gordon
Food Service chicken supplier farm showing birds scalded alive and having their
wings and legs broken, being shocked with electricity, and having their throats
sliced open while still conscious.
Abby the Abused Chicken’s features and injuries—born at a
Hollywood special effects studio—paint a gory, real-life picture of not only
brutal butchering at the slaughterhouse, but also the tortured life of a
chicken on a farm. Crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds,
birds at Gordon Food Service supplier farms buckle under their own unnatural
body weight, and chafe and develop boils and sores from the ammonia-laden
flooring. Without adequate veterinary care, the birds’ wounds are left to
fester. Birds experience no natural light, no environmental enrichments, and no
mercy.
Abby’s tour kicked off in Evanston, Illinois, with an amazing turnout from local volunteers
and media outlets. Abby and team then traveled north to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to reach Gordon Food Service in the
company’s home state. More volunteers supported and media outlets covered the
events in Cleveland Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio; and Nashville, Tennessee. The rain did not deter local activists and
media in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and even more volunteers and media showed
up for chickens in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Gordon Food Service lags behind
many of its food industry competitors, such as Walmart,
Nestlé,
Starbucks,
and Aramark,
that have already adopted meaningful animal welfare standards for their supply
chains. Gordon Food Service has not only the power, but also the ethical
responsibility to tell its suppliers to stop dumping, shocking, cutting open,
and scalding animals alive. Abby’s
tour will continue across the country until Gordon Food Service adopts a
meaningful animal welfare policy that reduces the suffering of the millions of
birds in the company’s supply chain every year.
Sign our petition and call Gordon Food Service
at 800-968-4164 to
politely ask the company to stop torturing chickens and implement a meaningful
animal welfare policy.