Martin Freeman From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

DON'T PANIC! While funnyman Martin Freeman is looking for the answer in Galaxy, he's found a solution on Earth—in PETA's campaign to save chickens from the abuse inflicted on them by KFC.

Martin Freeman of The Office fame and star of blockbuster film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has fired off a letter to KFC asking the company to implement PETA's recommended basic animal welfare standards that will stop the worst abuses experienced by the nearly 850 million chickens raised and killed every year for KFC restaurants.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Martin Freeman's character, Arthur Dent, and his intergalactic friends search for the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything but are stumped when a supercomputer gives them the answer ... the number 42. In real life, Martin knows what 42 means—death for KFC chickens, who are are shipped to slaughter when they're only 42 days old, after spending their entire lives cooped in their own waste. At the slaughterhouse, chickens are often still conscious when their throats are slit or when they are dumped into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers.

Today, birds are genetically bred to grow so large so quickly that their legs, lungs, and hearts often can't keep up. Many of these animals, whose lives are miserable from birth, suffer lung collapse, heart failure, and crippling leg deformities. Today, chickens' upper bodies grow six to seven times as fast as they did in the past, which is why they reach slaughter weight within 42 days instead of the six to eight months it would normally take.

Despite undercover exposés all over the world and science-based guidelines recommended by the world's top animal welfare experts, KFC has refused to do anything to eliminate the worst abuses that chickens suffer.

Want to send your own sweet note to KFC chief David Novak and let him know what you think of these inhumane practices? We'll give you his address, facts about KFC, and tons of extras.

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