KFC Chickens With Six Wings & Eight Legs, Anyone?

As early as end of last year, scientists in Canada had offered explanation for why today’s broiler chickens are so humongous. The best persons to ask are your grandma and grandpa. Ask them if they notice any difference in terms of size the chickens they consumed fifty years ago and now.

For the sake of study, the Canadian researchers raised three breeds of broiler chickens: one breed that was common in 1957, another from 1978, and a third from 2005, called the Ross 308 breed. The chickens were fed with the same things, hence no hormones were provided. Results – the Ross 308 chickens grew to be much bigger than the 1978 breed and four times larger than the 1957 breed.

In short, what your grandparents see and eat today is a 4kg bird, compared to a 1kg bird back in 1957. But why today’s chickens are such a monster in size? The scientists claim that today’s chickens are bigger simply because they were bred to be bigger. In other words. they are more efficient at turning feed into breast feed.

Does that make sense? Well, if you consider how today’s rats could be as huge as chickens, Japanese people are taller than their ancestors and kids nowadays are so much smarter than their daddies and mommies, dinosaur-sized chickens are nothing to shout about, really (*yawn*).

Scientists claimed such giant chickens are not dangerous to be consumed. Needless to say, restaurant operators such as KFC are feeding their broiler chickens as if there’s no tomorrow. If possible, they would like to see their newly hatched chick to grow to a 4kg chicken within 24-hours, ready to be slaughtered.

Because KFC serves relatively bigger size chickens than its competitors, there were tons of rumours that the restaurant’s chickens were genetically modified. Such rumours have been spreading like wild fire on the internet, every now and then. That’s why health-conscious consumers stay away from KFC’s fried chickens.

But when rumours are spreading on WeChat that KFC-bred mutant chickens actually have six wings and eight legs in China, the company has no other choice but to take legal actions. KFC is demanding 1.5 million yuan (US$242,000) and an apology from each of three companies that operated accounts on the popular mobile phone app.

The companies being sued were named as Shanxi Weilukuang Technology Company Ltd., Taiyuan Zero Point Technology Company andYingchenanzhi Success and Culture Communication Ltd. in Shenzhen city. But this is not the first time KFC gets its fair share of urban legend, let alone the only fast food chain involved in such accusations.

McDonald’s hamburgers were claimed to have worms and lizards, while Taco Bell’s tacos were made from cockroaches, and snakes were part of Burger King’s ingredients. That was how mind-boggling urban legends have infected fast food chains. And do you know why KFC had changed its name from the original “Kentucky Fried Chicken”?

Apparently, KFC is not allowed to use the word chicken, because its chickens were so badly manipulated genetically that their chickens are, well, not real chickens anymore. And those naughty rumours had already spread during internet’s infancy – in the 1997s. The version of six-legged KFC chickens also emerged back then.

Obviously, KFC China is furious about such rumours, because of its 4,600 restaurants presence in China. Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: Stock, YUM), the owner of KFC, had been accused by Chinese consumers 3-years ago of allowing its chicken suppliers, Su Hai Group, feeding toxic chemicals to chickens to accelerate their growth cycle from 100 days to a mere 45, to which KFC admitted as the industry standard.-financetwitter