May 2, 2015, San Francisco – Today, activists with United Poultry Concerns (UPC) and Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) will protest at Golden Gate Meat Company inside the Ferry Building in San Francisco, as part of International Respect for Chickens Day – an annual project launched by United Poultry Concerns in 2005 to celebrate chickens throughout the world and protest the bleakness of their lives in farming operations. Protesters will speak about the conditions chickens are forced to live in, and the lives that chickens deserve on sanctuaries ‑ places where rescued farm animals can live safe, happy, and free from harm.

“Chickens love the earth and the sun, yet the majority of chickens are sitting in filthy dark buildings on crippled legs breathing polluted air." says UPC President Karen Davis, who maintains a sanctuary for chickens on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Animal scientist Dr. John Webster, in turn, has called the treatment of chickens raised for food "in both magnitude and severity, the single most severe, systematic example of man's inhumanity to another sentient animal."

Chickens account for 97% of the land animals bred and killed for their flesh and eggs. Selectively bred birds often cannot support their own weight, and develop painful diseases in addition to being forced to live in horrific conditions, even on farms that market themselves as humane, investigations have shown that extreme confinement and mutilation are routine. Contesting what protesters say is extensive and systemic violence against chickens, UPC has declared the entire month of May International Respect for Chickens Month, and is calling for nationwide action from the public.

“Our message is simple,” says Davis. “Be kind to chickens. Don’t eat them. Tell your family and friends how much chickens suffer in animal agriculture and how cheerful and loving chickens are when they are treated with compassion and respect.”

United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of chickens, turkeys, ducks and other domestic fowl. We hold that the treatment of these birds in the areas of food production, science, education, entertainment, and human companionship situations has a significant effect upon human, animal, and environmental welfare. We seek to make the public aware of the ways in which poultry are used, and to promote the benefits of a vegan diet and lifestyle.

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