The animal rights organization PETA held a protest in Tokyo to draw attention to the cruel treatment of chickens on farms supplying KFC in Japan. The protest is timed to the start of the Christmas season, when it is traditional in the country to eat fried chicken. Activists, dressed as Santa Claus, held signs reading "Give chickens life! Go vegan!" According to PETA, several years ago they exposed cases of cruelty on one of the farms: employees kicked the birds, twisted their necks before skinning them alive, and left them to die in trash cans. "Chickens feel pain and fear just like humans, and they don't want to be chopped into pieces for Christmas dinner or any other time of the year," said PETA President Jason Baker. This tradition of eating fried chicken for Christmas in Japan began in the 1970s among expatriates who had difficulty finding turkey and has since become a national custom.
