“How does this restaurant prepare the chicken?” (joke)

A restaurant joke about preparing chicken is:
 
WAITER: May I take your order?
CUSTOMER: How do you prepare your chickens?
WAITER: Oh, we don’t do anything special. We just tell them straight out that they’re going to die.
 
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1997. “How do you prepare your turkey for Thanksgiving?”/“Oh, I just tell him he’s going to die” is a similar joke.
 
   
Google Books
18 March 1997, Weekly World News, pg. 19, col. 2:
“May I take your order?” the waiter asked.
“How do you prepare your chickens?” the diner wanted to know.
“Oh, we don’t do anything special,” the waiter replied. “We just tell them straight out that they’re going to die.”
   
A Prairie Home Companion (April 18, 1998)
The Third Annual Joke Show
(...)
Waiter, how do you prepare your chickens?
Nothing special. We just tell them straight out that they’re going to die.
 
Google Groups: alt.humor.puns
Puns of the Weak 12-24-99
Stan Kegel
12/24/99
(...)
“May I take your order?” the waiter asked.
“Yes, how do you prepare your chickens?”
“Nothing special sir,” he replied. “We just tell them straight out that they’re going to die.” (Jokes Make Your Day)
 
Google Groups: alt.society.zeitgeist
For Susan
Stupified
3/10/00
Customer:  What’s your special tonight?
Waiter:  Chicken.
Customer:  How do you prepare your chicken?
Waiter:  We just tell him he’s going to die.
 
Google Groups: alt.support.crohns-colitis
Mouse protein in Remicade
Fewdalord
6/26/01
My understanding of whether this affects the mice in a painful way reminds me of the joke:
 
A guy in a restaurant orders chicken and says “how do you prepare the chicken?” and the waiter replies “oh nothing special we just tell them they are going to die”
 
Google Books
Only Joking:
What’s So Funny About Making People Laugh?
By Jimmy Carr and Lucy Greeves
New York, NY: Gotham Books
2006
Pg. ?:
A man goes into a restaurant and says, “How do you prepare the chicken?” “We don’t,” replies the waiter. “We just tell it straight that it’s going to die.”
 
Google Books
Man Walks into a Bar:
Over 6,000 of the Most Hilarious Jokes, Funniest Insults, and Gut-Busting One-Liners
By Stephen Arnott and Mike Haskins
Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press
2007
Pg. 160:
A man goes into a restaurant and says, “How do you prepare the chicken?” “We don’t,” replies the waiter. “We just tell it straight that it’s going to die.”
   
Reddit—Jokes
A guy asks his waiter at a restaurant how they prepare their chicken…
submitted July 6, 2016 by madazzahatter
The waiter goes blank for a second, then says, “Nothing special really… We just tell them they’re going to die…”