PIRG to KFC: Quit using antibiotic-laden chickens

By
Kyle Harris
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DENVER, CO — Consumer watchdogs showed up at the KFC on Federal Boulevard this morning to demand the chain quit serving chickens pumped with medically unnecessary antibiotics.

Activists with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) then headed to Denver’s Auraria Campus where they organized a photo shoot of students holding signs that stated, “I’m a KFC lover, but I’m hungry for chicken raised without antibiotics.”

The action was part of a national campaign by the group, which has a long history of consumer advocacy. The photos from protests across the country will be shared on Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Twitter feed.

“Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health crisis we face,” Kate Cohen, a campaign organizer with CoPIRG, told The Colorado Independent. “We need immediate action to curb unnecessary antibiotic use in factory farms.”

Consumer advocates have successfully pushed McDonalds and Tyson Foods to quit using frivolous antibiotics in chicken. Subway has stopped using meat from any animal that has been given unnecessary antibiotics.

The advocates say the more antibiotics are used, the more resistant bacteria become.

Some 23,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Of antibiotics in the U.S., 70 percent are used in industrial agriculture — mostly on animals that aren’t sick.

Below are images from across the United States of PIRG demonstrators holding signs asking KFC to change its policy.

 

Photo credit: CoPIRG

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