One Lucky Hen Lily came from a battery hen operation and was thrown out as though she were nothing more than a piece of trash because of her bad health. She had been left to die in a parking lot. Her beak had been cut off in an effort to prevent her from pecking at other chickens. She hardly had any feathers left—a result of the burning ammonia fumes that she had to breathe for her entire life. Lily was nearly dead, but from the time that a PETA staffer first laid eyes on her, she seemingly sensed that she was going to have a second chance. After getting immediate veterinary care, she was lovingly nursed back to health by her new human family, who even fed her by hand. She couldn't see for a week because her eyes had also been damaged, but her voice—like the voice of a purring cat—showed that she felt love and safety for the first time. She was also comforted by other chickens at her new home. They gathered around her at night to keep her warm until her feathers grew in. Lily learned to enjoy life. She would jump on top of one of her new companions, a rescued pig named Nali, to get a better view of the world. She would leap in the air to eat grapes off a vine. And she would sneak into the house and leave a gift of an egg in a recliner where her human companions sat. Lily escaped her miserable fate and found love, peace, and safety. She passed away last year after being in her new home for four wonderful years. We need your help to end cruel factory-farming practices so that chickens like Lily won't need to be rescued anymore. Please make a donation to PETA today in memory of Lily and in defense of the billions of chickens who are not so fortunate.

Dear madison,

Chickens are sensitive, affectionate animals. If you describe the personality of a chicken, most people will assume you that are talking about a cat, a dog, or even a chimpanzee.

But chickens are also the most abused animal species on Earth. More than 9 billion chickens are killed for their flesh in North America each year. Because they are not protected from abuse by a single federal law, chickens are tortured in ways that would result in felony charges if they belonged to almost any other animal species—including cows and pigs.

Chickens raised for their flesh spend their entire lives crammed into filthy sheds. They are bred to grow so large that they become crippled under their own weight. By the time they are seven weeks old, they are trucked to the slaughterhouse. Most will be stunned before having their throats cut. But this process regularly fails, so millions of chickens are still conscious when they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water.

PETA's campaign to reform factory farming is improving the lives of countless animals. But no animals are in more urgent need of our help—and yours—than chickens are. Please make an online donation to PETA right now to help us end the suffering of billions of animals.

Your contribution is bad news for the companies that perpetrate cruelty to animals in factory farms. And that includes KFC, which is responsible for the deaths of more chickens than any other company in the world. However, as other companies move to adopt more humane practices, KFC just digs in its heels and refuses to stop torturing chickens.

During investigations of three of KFC's "Suppliers of the Year" slaughterhouses, investigators have found unimaginable cruelty:

• Broken transport cages sometimes impale chickens, and workers tear the birds limb from limb in order to get them out.
  
• Some chickens fall through the large holes in their crates and get crushed or eviscerated by the dumping machine.
  
• In just one day, a PETA investigator saw more than 50 "red birds": chickens who go into the scalding tank while they are still alive and alert because their throats weren't cut.