Chicken Run

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Will 'Chicken Run' make some swear off poultry?

 

June 29, 2000

Web posted at: 8:51 AM EDT (1251 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/06/29/chicken.feed.ap/index.html

 

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Babe the talking pig led some people to swear off pork.

Might chattering chickens do the same for poultry, even though the hens are made

of clay?

 

The new animated movie " Chicken Run " depicts an endearing gaggle of fowl trying

to escape stalag-like conditions on a poultry farm.

 

Burger King, which has a toy promotion pegged to the movie, has had some fun

running ads urging, " Save a chicken, eat a Whopper. " The fast-food chain also

hired people to wear chicken suits and stage mock poultry protests at some of

its restaurants.

 

Others take it more seriously.

 

" Seen Chicken Run? " asks a link on the Web site of the Physicians Committee for

Responsible Medicine, which encourages meat-free diets. " Ready to switch to a

vegetarian diet? "

 

http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/GM00SpringSummer/GM00SpSum2.html

 

The link leads to a question-and-answer page about fat content, food poisoning

and other health issues. Neal Barnard, the group's president, said he expects

people will so sympathize with the penned hens in " Chicken Run " that they will

think twice about eating poultry.

 

" If people run from the theater screaming for a veggie burger, I'd be thrilled, "

said Bernard, a vegetarian. " It's what happened with 'Babe.' I can't tell you

how many people saw that movie and happened to sit down to a pork chop and were

so overcome with guilt, they said, 'Make mine the veggie platter, please.' "

 

The National Chicken Council, a trade group for poultry processors, is

unconcerned, said spokesman Richard Lobb.

 

" Our feeling is this is just a movie, and people are going to take it as just a

movie, " Lobb said. " Chicken is the most popular food at the center of the plate,

and we think it will stay there. "

 

Besides, in the 1995 " Babe, " the title character was played by a real pig. The

movie became a rallying point for vegetarian and animal-rights groups.

 

John Wagner of Los Angeles said he had no thoughts about avoiding chicken after

catching " Chicken Run. "

 

" It's a cartoon, " Wagner said, adding that the movie actually made him a bit

peckish because the hens " looked like nice, plump little suckers. "

 

Three-year-old Vincent Joseph came out of " Chicken Run " at a Hollywood theater

with no qualms about eating a drumstick. When his mother, Claire Joseph, asked

if he wanted chicken for dinner, Vincent told her, " Uh-huh. "

 

His twin sister, Maddie, though, announced, " I want to eat fish. "

 

Claire Joseph said the movie did make her reconsider whether she wanted to eat

chicken. " Chicken farms are terribly brutal, " she said. " They're very much like

Nazi concentration camps. "

 

Despite its tongue-in-cheek ads, Burger King expects no actual backlash against

poultry consumption. " We don't expect any protests from the chicken farmers of

America, " said Richard Taylor, Burger King vice president of marketing.

 

 

Chicken Run Soars

http://animalrights.about.com/newsissues/animalrights/library/weekly/aa062200a.h\

tm

 

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