Oprah aids in the killing of roughly one billion chickens

People online has “Oprah helps fuel Chicken Run” as their headline today.  Apparently, oprah.com offered a coupon for a free meal so people flocked to the Manhattan KFC and then KFC ran out of food.

How….perfectly depressing.

Someone once told me that Oprah’s 21 day vegan “cleanse” was a good thing because of the “number of people to whom she exposed the concept of veganism as something healthy and attainable…”.  That, we should weight the good and the bad and decide if what the person is doing is more good than bad.  I felt, and still do, that promoting veganism as a “diet” or a “cleanse” is misleading and really doesn’t focus on what is important.  The important part, for me, is the decision to lead a compassionate life.  You hear me say it over and over again, but being vegan is a matter of life and death to these animals.

Yes, exposing people to the idea of veganism is important.  But to label veganism as a diet makes about as much sense as labeling Christianity as a club, it misses the point entirely.

You know, I wish that someone had talked to her about what ethical and compassionate eating really means.  I doubt she would have problems with her weight or whether or not she wanted to advertise for one of the most barbaric fast food chains out there.

Does anyone remember when Oprah did a special on factory farming?  Wasn’t it not that long ago?  Did she forget what the animals go through?  I wonder if she thinks that Kentucky Fried Chicken gets their chickens from the chicken fairy?

Maybe she doesn’t know that they kill roughly one billion animals a year.  Or how about how the chickens throats are slit and the animals dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers, often while they are still conscious and can feel pain (not to mention fear).  At a KFC “Supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse in W. Virginia, workers were documented tearing off the heads of live (I repeat: LIVE) birds, spitting tobacco into their eyes, spray-painting their faces, and violently stomping on them.

And, this abuse isn’t singular to one slaughterhouse either so please don’t tell me about how there are “humane” slaughterhouses out there.  There aren’t.  Humane and killing in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

Chickens at a KFC Slaughterhouse, owned by George's, Inc.

Oprah blogged during her cleanse about the food she was eating.  In one blog she says “What I know for sure is I’ve reached a new level of awareness about food, eating and the whole process of how it gets to my table.  …This has been exactly what we intended: enlightening. I will forever be a more cautious and conscious eater.”

Well then, Oprah is consciously sending these chickens (read: live, sentient beings) to the slaughterhouses.  So much for a new level of awareness.  Sigh.