International Respect For Chickens Day: a Chicken Chat with Karen Davis, discussing pronouns used for animals in mainstream media

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May 4 is International Respect for Chickens Day!

Created by United Poultry Concerns (UPC), an activist group and sanctuary for chickens and other birds commonly used for food. Respect for Chickens Day is the perfect time to educate others about these wonderful birds who are so often mistreated in the food industry.  

United Poultry Concerns urges people to celebrate chickens on the planet instead of the plate, and to make every day Respect for Chickens Day.

In Honor of the annual Respect For Chickens Day, we sat down with Karen Davis, Founder and President of United Poultry Concerns, which spearheaded the creation of this holiday. UPC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of chickens, turkeys, ducks and other domestic fowl. The organization seeks to make the public aware of the ways in which poultry are used and promotes the benefits of a vegan diet and lifestyle.

This week, Karen Davis celebrates chickens with us. We discuss UPC’s new campaign entitled “Animals Deserve Gender Pronouns, Too,” created to urge the Associated Press to change their language recommendations which currently define animals as the objectifying “it,” rather than “he” or “she”. For decades, the AP’s Stylebook recommendations on the use of personal pronouns for nonhuman animals have cast animals as “it,” “which,” and similar demeaning and inaccurate designations that influence media coverage and public perception.

This campaign garnered support from Scott Simon of NPR who wrote an opinion piece on the subject, titled Animals deserve Gender Pronouns Too.

Finally, for the news segment we covered another story related to the misuse and abuse of chickens. As reported by UPC, The Tractor Supply Company mistreats baby chicks and ducklings through an annual promotion called “Chick Days,” where birds are held on a metal grate with no soft bedding. Dying birds are taken to the back room to die slowly in tanks, out of sight.

Show produced by Grace Wampold, with web content written by Grace Wampold.

The Animal Voices radio show on 100.5 FM Vancouver Co-op Radio is produced on unceded ancestral Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, and Squamish Territories known as Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.