Protest NPR Shows Denigrating Chickens and Encouraging Sarcastic Violence Toward Them

Chickens on their way to being slaughtered.
Photo by Anita Krajnic courtesy of Free from Harm.

On Saturday, January 16, the National Public Radio quiz show “ Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me” joked about slapping dead chickens to prepare them to be eaten: “how hard do I have to slap a chicken to cook it?” And “How many light slaps would it take?” Chickens are stereotyped in the segment as “smelly,” though any “smelliness” they may have is the result of the filth people force them to live in. The segment ends with an ugly “Chicken Fried” song.

On February 6, NPR’s “All Things Considered” ran another segment, this time promoting “chicken wings” for Super Bowl watchers, with host Michel Martin and a food writer joking about how to eat the wings.

NPR’s love affair with the chicken industry is heartless. NPR needs to hear from people who care about these birds who are living and dying in pain and fear for the sake of the very diet of carnage and cruelty that spawned the coronavirus pandemic – the connection about which we don’t hear a peep from the corporate media, including NPR.

Given the torture inflicted on chickens from the hatchery to the slaughterhouse, including dragging them, face down fully conscious, through electrified water to fit them to the slaughter machinery and facilitate removal of their feathers after they are dead, smirking “advice” about slapping their corpses and how to eat their wings promotes cruelty and ignorance toward chickens, and we are asking our supporters to express their disgust and demand a stop to NPR’s irresponsible rhetoric.

Please express your concerns by contacting:

• Kelly McBride, Public Editor
  Office of the Public Editor at NPR
  1111 North Capitol Street, NE
  Washington, DC 20002
  
  help.npr.org/contact/s/contact?request=Ask-the-Public-Editor-about-ethics
  
  The Public Editor is an independent mediator on questions raised by the audience regarding the standards and ethics of National Public Radio’s journalism.

• Something I Heard or Read:
  help.npr.org/contact/s

• Ben Fishel, NPR Media Relations
  National Public Radio
  1111 North Capitol Street, NE
  Washington, DC 20002
  Phone: 202-513-4400
  Fax: 202-513-4498
  Email: mediarelations@npr.org

Thank you for sticking up for chickens
&
for ethical media treatment of all animals.