Mutant Ninja Chickens

UNH's News Bureau was inundated with phone calls last winter when an Internet hoax claimed that KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) was making its chicken dishes out of genetically engineered organisms instead of chickens, and that a UNH study had revealed the awful truth.

A UNH Web page debunking the story (http://www.unh.edu/ BoilerPlate/kfc.html) drew 92,000 hits by early spring, according to Jim Cerny, UNH senior information technology manager. "Gadzooks!" exclaimed the Urban Legends Archive. "Giant featherless, beakless mutant chickens pulsating with nutrient-conveying tubes! Oh, the humanity!"

Cerny said the e-mail message contained all the classic elements of a hoax. "The most obvious clue is the next to last sentence, which tells you to forward the message to as many people as possible," he said. "People should learn that if they see this in an e-mail message, there is probably something wrong with it."