Kategorie: Animals

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El Pollo Loco, a chain known for chicken and Mexican-inspired dishes, has taken a huge step into the future by offering vegan Chickenless Pollo. The new plant-based protein has made El Pollo Loco the largest chain to offer vegan chicken burritos and tacos.

Chickens are social animals who prefer to spend their days sunbathing and taking care of their young. In the animal agriculture industry, the majority of chickens spend their lives confined to dark, filthy sheds before they’re slaughtered.

By choosing the Chickenless Pollo and other vegan options at El Pollo Loco, you can rest assured knowing that your meal doesn’t come at the cost of an animal’s life.

Here’s our complete guide to eating vegan at El Pollo Loco:

Street Tacos

Vegan Chickenless Pollo Taco: As the name suggests, this taco is totally vegan without any modifications. The vegan chicken is simmered in a roasted pepper, tomato, and onion sauce and served in a yellow corn tortilla with lettuce and avocado.

Burritos

Vegan Chickenless Pollo Burrito: This burrito is vegan without modifications, stuffed with vegan chicken, black beans, avocado, and shredded lettuce.

BRC Burrito: This classic rice-and-bean burrito can be made vegan by removing the cheese. Subbing in avocado or guacamole instead of cheese is a super-easy swap if you’re making the transition from vegetarian to vegan. Keep mother cows and their calves in mind—in the dairy industry, they’re separated almost immediately after the calves are born.

Chipotle Chicken Avocado Burrito: Make this burrito animal-friendly by removing the chicken, cheese, and sour cream. This one already comes with sliced avocado, plus pinto beans, rice, cabbage, and chipotle salsa.

Bowls

Original Pollo Bowl: You can sub avocado for the chicken in this bowl, which is layered with rice, pinto beans, diced onions, fresh cilantro, and pico de gallo. Top it with your favorite salsa (or three).

Grande Avocado Chicken Bowl: As the name suggests, this bowl is a larger version of the original bowl with some added corn and cabbage. Ask for no chicken, sour cream, and cheese for a hearty vegan bowl.

Chicken Black Bean Bowl: For a lighter option, order this bowl, which is layered with rice, black beans, broccoli, avocado, and pico de gallo. Remove the chicken and cheese and add some avocado salsa instead.

Tostada Salads

Classic Tostada Salad: This salad is served in a crispy flour tortilla shell and filled with chopped romaine lettuce, pinto beans, rice, and pico de gallo salsa. Ask for avocado instead of the chicken, and swap in low-fat citrus vinaigrette or avocado salsa instead of the cheese, sour cream, and creamy cilantro dressing.

Starters and Sides

• Broccoli
• Chips & Guacamole
• Pinto and Black Beans
• Rice
• Salsa Bar
• Tapatio Fries

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Going vegan is the easiest way to make a positive change in the world. It’s the best thing that you can do to take a stand for animals, prevent pandemics, and lower your carbon footprint. If you need help making the transition, we’re here for you with resources on going vegan, guides that will help you find vegan options at your favorite chains and fast-food restaurants, and even mentors to give you personalized advice.

Connect Me With a Vegan Mentor Today!

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Who knows what 2020 has in store for fall (our bet is on an alien invasion or a giant meteor). But this Halloween, whatever you do, we have the perfect costume for this pandemic-ridden year—a tofu “blockhead”!

As many regions of the U.S. experience a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, PETA’s limited-edition Halloween costume points out the obvious to blockheads who still eat animals: The meat industry breeds killer pathogens like the novel coronavirus, but tofu never caused a pandemic.

Each costume includes a big, white cube head and a lollipop-shaped sign reading, “Tofu Never Caused a Pandemic.” We also include 25 pamphlets featuring delicious vegan recipes for tofu scramble, General Tso’s tofu, and chocolate mousse pie. Hand these leaflets out at Halloween parties or to trick-or-treaters (if either of those will even be a thing this year)—or leave them in magazine racks at the grocery store.

This unique, head-turning, eye-catching costume is available for pre-order right now. We recommend wearing white pants and a white long-sleeved top with it, for maximum impact.

Eat as if everyone’s life depends on it, because it does.

Deadly outbreaks of mad cow disease, swine flu, and other zoonotic diseases have stemmed from capturing or farming animals. The novel coronavirus may have originated in a live-animal market in China—but when it comes to spawning dangerous pathogens, animal markets and slaughterhouses around the world all pose a danger.

No animal chooses the butcher’s knife over life. Pigs want to cuddle with their babies, not be slaughtered. Cows want to raise their calves and spend time with their friends, not be killed. Chickens want to engage in their natural social structures, not be crammed together with hundreds of other suffering birds.

Speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, deprives animals of their dignity—and we’ve seen firsthand how this can lead to devastating consequences.

Tofu is the perfect food for humans.

Not only is tofu cheaper than meat, it is also more versatile, is jam-packed with protein, and has a far smaller carbon footprint than animal flesh. Tofu contains zero cholesterol and can help lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and numerous other life-threatening health issues.

Plus, it won’t cause a pandemic that brings society to its knees.

PETA’s website offers hundreds of tasty, simple tofu-based recipes, including tofu-spinach lasagna, garlicky-ginger tofu triangles, and Buffalo tofu-scramble breakfast tacos.

Give actual food—rather than dead flesh—a try, and influence others to go vegan, too. Order a free vegan starter kit. Sign up for a free vegan mentor. You can make a real difference and save nearly 200 animals a year—simply by not eating them!

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PETA has obtained U.S. Department of Agriculture reports revealing recent violations of law at Seven Hills Abattoir in Lynchburg. In response, we sent a letter this morning calling on the Lynchburg Commonwealth’s attorney to review the matter and, as appropriate, file criminal cruelty-to-animals charges against the facility and the workers responsible for violations made on June 5 and 12. Inspectors documented that a metal bolt was lodged in one conscious cow’s skull, another animal who had been ineffectively shot in the head was hanging upside down while conscious and lifting her head, and a third suffered from a head wound after being shot until a worker shot the animal a second time.

“These disturbing reports show that these cows experienced prolonged, agonizing deaths at Seven Hills Abattoir,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling for a criminal investigation on behalf of the cows who suffered at this facility and urging all compassionate members of the public who are disturbed by this cruelty to go vegan and help prevent more animals from suffering in slaughterhouses.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. The group notes that cows, bulls, sheep, pigs, chickens, and other animals feel pain and fear and value their lives, just as humans do, and that the only way to help prevent them from suffering in slaughterhouses is not to eat them.

For more information, visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany A.S. Harrison follows.

July 8, 2020

The Honorable Bethany A.S. Harrison

Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney

Dear Ms. Harrison,

I hope this letter finds you well. I would like to request that your office (and the proper local law enforcement agency, as you deem appropriate) investigate and file suitable criminal charges against Seven Hills Abattoir and the worker(s) responsible for repeatedly shooting three cows in the head on June 5 and June 12 at its slaughterhouse located at 1803 Holiday St. in Lynchburg. The botched shots left a metal bolt lodged in one animal’s skull, another animal hanging upside down while conscious, and a third with a hole in his or her head. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incidents in the attached reports, which state the following:

June 12, 2020: “IPP [Inspection Program Personnel] watched the employee moving his hand around while holding a 25-caliber hand-held captive bolt device (HHCB) in an attempt to stun [a bovine]. The employee rendered a stun with the captive bolt gun, but the animal did not drop. The animal remained standing with no vocalization but remained agitated. A second employee came up into the knock box area to assist and reloaded the captive bolt and attempted a second time to knock the animal. The second employee successfully rendered the animal unconscious with the 2^nd stun using the same HHCB. After the animal’s head had been removed and skinned, IPP noted that there were two (2) penetrating wounds; one hole located low and to the right of the ideal stunning location (there was bruising of the surrounding tissue, and the hole did not appear to penetrate as deep as the second hole) and a second hole located in the correct position for stunning. IPP confirmed with the second employee that the incorrectly placed hole was a result of the first ineffective stun attempt.”¹

June 8, 2020: “At approximately 8:50am on June 5, 2020 … IPP … observed a conscious animal on the rail. IPP observed a heifer that had been stunned, shackled, and hoisted, but which had not yet been stuck for bleeding. IPP observed the heifer breathing, exhibiting tracking eye movement, and lifting its head as if attempting to stand (i.e. the righting reflex). At this time, the associate immediately reloaded the 25-caliber … HHCB … and delivered an effective stun to the back of the head/poll. Following the incident, IPP confirmed that the heifer had been stunned initially using the HHCB, but the stun placement was incorrect (i.e. to the left of center on the skull). … At approximately 11:15am … IPP observed an establishment employee attempt to stun a beef cow using the 25-caliber HHCB. Following the initial stun attempt, the bolt of the HHCB became lodged in the skull of the cow and the cow remained standing. After attempts to dislodge the HHCB from the cow’s skull, the employee asked if he should use the shotgun to re-stun the cow, and IPP instructed the employee to do so. The employee retrieved the backup 20-gauge shotgun and immediately administered an effective second stun, rendering the animal unconscious.”²

This conduct appears to violate Va. Code § 3.2-6570. Importantly, FSIS action does not preempt criminal liability under state law for slaughterhouse workers who perpetrate acts of cruelty to animals.³

Please let us know what we might do to assist you. Thank you for your consideration and for the difficult work that you do.

Sincerely,

Colin Henstock

Assistant Manager of Investigations

[1]FSIS District 80 Manager Todd Furey, Notice of Reinstatement of Suspension, Seven Hills Abattoir, Est. M46877 (June 12, 2020) https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/f0fb898e-763a-4ecd-b912-e9db4a71e87a/m46877-noros-06122020.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

2FSIS District 80 Manager Todd Furey, Revised Notice of Suspension, Seven Hills Abattoir, Est. M46877 (June 8, 2020) https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/6bf248e3-d3a1-44b3-87a9-3f1aba60c569/m46877-rnos-06082020.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

3See Nat’l. Meat Assoc. v. Harris, 132 S. Ct. 965, 974 n.10 (2012) (“. . . States may exact civil or criminal penalties for animal cruelty or other conduct that also violates the [Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA)]. See [21 U.S.C.] §678; cf. Bates v. Dow Agrosciences, LLC, 544 U.S. 431, 447 (2005) (holding that a preemption clause barring state laws ‘in addition to or different’ from a federal Act does not interfere with an ‘equivalent’ state provision). Although the FMIA preempts much state law involving slaughterhouses, it thus leaves some room for the States to regulate.”).

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