What’s in a Name? KFC Still Means Real Chicken

. By T.V. Antony Raj

.
In early 1970’s I watched an art-thriller directed by Giulio Questi with a completely ridiculous title “Death Laid an egg ” released in 1968. In this movie, maiming of the chicken is done by “The Machine”, a new device that dispenses feed and whose secret purpose is for creating wingless, headless and largely boneless chickens.

A scene from "Death Laid an Egg". — A scene from “Death Laid an Egg”.

In one scene in this movie, there is a cage filled with mutated poultry. The headless, wingless freak chickens fail to take gory revenge on the heartless world that made them during their two minutes of screen time.

A few days ago I came across the following on Facebook:

Horrible Fact about KFC:

KFC has been a part of American traditions for many years. Many people,
day in and day out, eat at KFC religiously. Do they really know what they
are eating? During a recent study of KFC done at the University of New
Hampshire, they found some very upsetting facts. First of all, has anybody
noticed that just recently, the company has changed their name?

Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC. Does anybody know why? We thought
the real reason was because of the “FRIED” food issue.

IT’S NOT!!

The reason why they call it KFC is because they can not use the word
chicken anymore. Why? KFC does not use real chickens. They actually use
genetically manipulated organisms. These so called “chickens” are kept
alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients
throughout their structure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet.
Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them.
This is great for KFC.

Because they do not have to pay so much for their production costs. There
is no more plucking of the feathers or the removal of the beaks and feet.
The government has told them to change all of their menus so they do not
say chicken anywhere. If you look closely you will notice this. Listen to
their commercials, I guarantee you will not see or hear the word chicken.
I find this matter to be very disturbing.

I hope people will start to realize this and let other people know ..

Versions of this legend have circulated for several years now as shown by the following e-mail that circulated in 1991 about Kentucky Fried Chicken’s “recent” name change, an event that occurred in 1991.

KFC has been a part of our American traditions for many years. Many people, day in and day out, eat at KFC religiously. Do they really know what they are eating? During a recent study of KFC done at the University of New Hampshire, they found some very upsetting facts.

First of all, has anybody noticed that just recently, the company has changed their name? Kentucky Fried Chicken has become KFC. Does anybody know why? We thought the real reason was because of the “FRIED” food issue. It’s not. The reason why they call it KFC is because they can not use the word chicken anymore. Why? KFC does not use real chickens. They actually use genetically manipulated organisms. These so called “chickens” are kept alive by tubes inserted into their bodies to pump blood and nutrients throughout their structure. They have no beaks, no feathers, and no feet. Their bone structure is dramatically shrunk to get more meat out of them. This is great for KFC because they do not have to pay so much for their production costs. There is no more plucking of the feathers or the removal of the beaks and feet. The government has told them to change all of their menus so they do not say chicken anywhere. If you look closely you will notice this. Listen to their commercials, I guarantee you will not see or hear the word chicken. I find this matter to be very disturbing. I hope people will start to realize this and let other people know. Please forward this message to as many people as you can. Together we make KFC start using real chicken again.

The article: Tastes Like Chicken in snopes.com debunks the above as hoax.

The fast-food chain known today as “KFC” was founded by Harland Sanders. He was not born in Kentucky but was born in September 9, 1980 in Henryville, Indiana.

In the 1930s Sanders began serving chicken to the patrons of his service station in Corbin, Kentucky. Not having a restaurant then Sanders served people on his own dining table in the living quarters of his service station. Eventually, his fame grew and he moved his fried chicken operation across the street to a motel and restaurant. In 1935, recognizing his contributions to the state’s cuisine Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel.

In 1952, Pete Harman with a store in Salt Lake City became the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee. PepsiCo, Inc., acquired the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain in 1986.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky, apparently mired in debt, trademarked their name in 1990 and anyone using the word “Kentucky” for business reasons have to pay licensing fees to the state. As a matter of principle, Kentucky Fried Chicken refused to pay royalties on a name it had used since 1953. In 1991, after a year of futile negotiations with he Commonwealth of Kentucky, the company to save money opted to change its name to KFC to avoid paying the license fees. So, changing the name and logo to KFC has nothing to do with the myth of the chicken not being real chicken.

On July 5, 2013, Eric Kuns published a post titled: “Mutant chickens raised from stolen KFC “chicken factory” eggs?!” with the following picture:

Mutant chickens raised by Yang Pei in Shaanxi, China, after she stole a few eggs from the chicken farm where she worked, and which supplied chickens to KFC. She transferred the eggs to hens at her family’s own chicken farm and these birds hatched. (Photo: Eric Kuns)

After telling his story, Eric added the following postscript:

I threw this together myself when I was teaching English in China as part of a lesson revolving around the most popular restaurant in the city = KFC. I wanted the students to be more wary of hoaxes, and after presenting the photo along with the original KFC mutant chicken hoax to the students, l helped them figure out ways to identify hoaxes. PS by yours truly, of course. I’ve altered the content to make it more convincing to a different audience. So, this variant on the story is mine, as is the pic.

Earlier versions of the tale featured six-legged chickens. So, Is this story from China a hoax, a conspiracy, or a strange but true story?