PETA urges Chipotle to be less cruel to chickens

PETA has submitted a shareholder resolution asking Chipotle Mexican Grill to give preference to chicken suppliers that use a "less cruel" method of slaughter, the group said.

PETA is lobbying Chipotle and other fast-food restaurants to buy poultry from suppliers that use a method where the oxygen that chickens breathe is slowly replaced by inert gases.

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold said specifying such a protocol isn't practical just yet because it isn't used in a large enough scale to supply the chain's restaurants.

"Our current standards have us purchasing more humanely raised, naturally raised meat than any other restaurant company," he said

(Contact Joyzelle Davis of the Rocky Mountain News at www.rockymountainnews.com.)