PETA offers $1 million for fake meat

NEW YORK, April 21 (UPI) -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group based in Virginia, is offering a $1 million prize for meat produced in a laboratory.

PETA said scientists are working to develop meat using animal stem cells.

"More than 40 billion chickens, fish, pigs, and cows are killed every year for food in the United States in horrific ways," PETA said Monday in a release. "Chickens are drugged to grow so large they often become crippled, mother pigs are confined to metal cages so small they can't move, and fish are hacked apart while still conscious -- all to feed America's meat addiction."

The group said "in vitro meat" would spare animals from suffering and reduce the effects the meat industry has on the environment.

The $1 million prize is being offered to the scientist who makes the first in vitro chicken meat and sells it to the public by June 30, 2012. The winning in vitro chicken-meat product must have a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh and it must be produced in large enough quantities to be sold commercially at a competitive price in at least 10 states, PETA said.