Karen Davis
Key Player
Full-time animal rights activistKaren Davis has gone on record saying that “the extermination of 7 billion broiler chickens is the moral equivalent of the Holocaust.” In April 2001 she told the Village Voice: “If people feel threatened by the idea of equality beyond human primatology, that is our problem to solve.” Despite United Poultry Concerns’ radical position that chickens, turkeys, and ducks should be afforded the same rights as human beings, Davis is usually portrayed as a sympathetic figure by the mass media. The Washington Post once noted that Davis had divorced her husband because “he needed more in his life than ‘the cause,’ and, being older and arthritic, was no longer able to help much with the chickens anyway.” Karen Davis runs UPC out of her Virginia home, along with over 100 chickens and ducks that she keeps as “companions.”