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Animal welfare consultants Temple Grandin of Colorado State University
and Ian Duncan of the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, resigned
from positions as advisors to the KFC fast food chain during the first
week of May 2005, after the parent firm, Yum Brands, asked them to sign
a confidentiality agreement that would have required them to refer all
media inquiries to the KFC corporate headquarters. “I resigned because
there is a document that I can’t sign,” Grandin told Nichola
Groom of Reuters. “I feel very strongly that I [should be able to]
talk freely to the press.” Grandin has also advised McDonald’s,
Wendy’s International, and Burger King about animal welfare matters,
but told Groom that none of them ever asked her to sign an agreement to
not speak to the press. Added Duncan, “The way that I read it, it
wouldn’t allow me to talk in general terms about animal welfare.
If someone phoned and said ‘You are on the KFC animal welfare committee,’
I was bound to say ‘No comment.”’ KFC spokesperson Bonnie
Warschauer said the company would try to work out a new confidentiality
agreement with Grandin and Duncan, who have each advised KFC for about
three years.
