While I thank you for a quick response, I am deeply disappointed that it does not address the issue I wrote to Tropicana Casino about. The use of live chickens for entertainment in your casino is inherently cruel because these animals are forced to live in an environment that is totally unnatural and therefore, incredibly stressful for them. I must again object to the inhumane treatment of these hens, despite how one professor of sociology has told Tropicana what it wants to hear--that the hens "lead very nice lives" and were "trained totally without adversives." The "adversive" is having the hens in the casino game in the first place. This professor obviously knows very little about the intelligent, sensitive beings that chickens are--if she did, she would not support this unconscionable treatment.

I'm certain that if the hens could make the choice for themselves, they would not choose to be imprisoned in a casino as the working parts of the "Chicken Challenge" tic-tac-toe game! I do not understand how Tropicana can assert that it is treating these chickens "with respect and dignity" when the very acts that Tropicana is forcing the birds to perform robs them of both of these things. It allows the chickens to be viewed as a mere joke to casino patrons, reinforcing a societal mindset that objectifies animals and spreads indifference about their welfare. Until we stop treating animals as objects for our amusement, we cannot truly consider ourselves a compassionate and civilized society.

Please make the ethical decision to remove these chickens from your casino immediately and return them to their home. While using live hens in your promotion is definitely drawing attention to your casino, which was undoubtedly a goal, it does not shine a positive light on Tropicana. Not only does it highlight Tropicana's blatant disregard for animal welfare, it ensures that caring consumers like myself--who find the inhumane treatment of animals unacceptable--will boycott Tropicana Casino & Resort and urge our family, friends, and colleagues to do the same.

Thank you for your reconsideration of this critical matter of animal welfare.

Letter in NY Times Re: Tropicana Casino Tick-Tack-Toe Chicken

To the Editor:

Re "In New Casino Contest, Henhouse Has the Edge" (news article, Sept. 5):

However the "Chicken Challenge" is rigged, the hen in the tick-tack-toe machine loses. Aren't chickens abused enough already without being subjected to this inhumane gambling program?

The Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City should cancel the "Chicken Challenge" and use a computerized opponent instead of a live bird. There was never an excuse for cruelty, but with the technology we now have, the infliction of suffering on a sentient creature for fun is even more atrocious.

• 9/6/2001: Action Alert - Protest the Use of Live Hens in Casino Video Game

United Poultry Concerns, Inc. PO Box 150 Machipongo, VA 23405-0150 757-678-7875 FAX: 757-678-5070 www.upc-online.org (Letters Re: Protest the Use of Live Hens in Casino Video Game)

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