Action Alert

Protest the Use of Live Hens in Casino Video Game

"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." UPC President Karen Davis, Letter in The New York Times, September 10, 2001.

In September, the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City introduced a tic tac toe video game in which hens are forced to "play" opposite gamblers. The gamblers press buttons on an electrically lighted panel outside a booth in which the hen is confined, causing her to peck. The Tropicana has refused to explain what is done to the hens to make them perform, or what happens to them if they don't perform or if the machinery malfunctions, which frequently happens in electronic games.

Urge the Tropicana Casino and the casino's parent company Aztar Corporation to replace the hens with a computerized opponent. Tell them you strongly object to subjecting these birds to an environment of derision, gambling, and alcohol with a strong potential for injury to the birds trapped inside gambling machines. Urge them to confine their business to human participants and to leave the birds alone. Request a written reply.