CSI: Kentucky Fried Cruelty

Although I haven't been watching CSI this season, DawnWatch gave me a heads-up that last night's episode would feature a murder at a chicken slaughterhouse, and would air actual footage taken at chicken slaughterhouses. Since I'm a vegan and an animal rights activist, it was enough to get me to tune into CSI again. Plus, Grey's Anatomy was a repeat.

CSI has been honored by the Humane Society's Genesis Awards for a past episode which exposed the cruelty behind canned hunts, and an earlier episode in which Sara investigated gorilla poaching. Last night's episode, while using an...interesting...PSA by a murdered rock star played by Danny Bonaduce (to be clear, I personally do not equate eating chickens with eating starving African children), did a GREAT job of showing the actual conditions chickens are kept in and the cruel ways in which they are treated and killed at slaughterhouses. The investigation shown on the show actually mirrors a real-life investigation of a KFC-supplying slaughterhouse in West Virginia, and the video footage they used definitely came from that or a similar investigation.

Mad, MAD props to CSI for having the guts to air disturbing slaughterhouse footage and highlight the issue of animal cruelty. Plus, it wasn't that bad an episode, either. (Sorry 'bout the preachiness. But it's my birthday--I'm allowed!)