Media Invite: Move Over, Rudolph: Giant Chicken Will Join Santa to Protest KFC Cruelty

What: Santa Claus and one of his lesser-known helpers, a gigantic inflatable chicken, will be making an early stop this year outside KFC Shimbashi Store to expose the cruelty behind the company’s chicken supply chain. Carrying a sign reading, “Give Chickens The Gift of Life. Go Vegan!” the festive duo will encourage passersby to choose vegan meals that spread peace on Earth to all.

“Chickens feel pain and fear just like humans, and they don’t want to be sliced up for a meal at Christmas or any other time of the year,” says PETA President Jason Baker. “PETA urges people to show compassion to chickens and other animals this holiday and beyond by going vegan.”

Where: KFC Shimbashi Store, 3-16-24 Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo (See the Google Maps link here.)

When: Wednesday, December 3, 12 noon sharp

Interviews will be available on-site and remotely. Photos of the protest will be available here after 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Why: A PETA exposé found workers at a KFC supplier in Japan wringing chickens’ necks before dismembering them while they were still alive or struggling as their chests were torn open. Other chickens were thrown, kicked, and left to die slowly in dumpsters. Almost all chickens in the meat industry spend their entire lives crammed into filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds and given less space than the size of a sheet of paper. Many have trouble breathing or standing upright because they’ve been bred to be abnormally large.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow PETA Asia on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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