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STOP BY A BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD (It's in the Breaking News sidebar!)
Posted on 07/07/2003 1:08:36 PM PDT by Calpernia
CHICAGO (Reuters) - An animal rights group filed a lawsuit on Monday against fast-food chain KFC, accusing the company of making misleading statements on its Web site regarding how the chickens it sells are treated.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed the suit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles against KFC and KFC's parent, Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE:YUM - News), seeking an injunction to stop what it says are deceptive statements on the KFC Web site.
PETA contends that the chickens KFC buys from suppliers are abused through drugging, feeding and slaughter practices. PETA's director of vegan outreach, Bruce Friedrich, said the treatment is legal, but "they can't legally lie about it, and they have been."
Friedrich said KFC's Web site and other public communications contain untruths about how chickens are treated.
"The claims (on the Web site) are transparently absurd," he said. "We have tried writing letters to explain to them what on their Web site is laughably, obviously wrong, and they've ignored us."
PETA, in the lawsuit, takes issue with a KFC statement on its Web site that its guidelines for the treatment of chickens are designed "to ensure that all birds are handled humanely and suffer no pain."
That statement "is deceptive at best," PETA said in the draft.
Spokespeople for KFC and Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum could not be reached for comment.
In May, KFC announced plans to adopt more humane poultry-handling guidelines, addressing the breeding, hatching and raising of chickens. At the time, PETA said the guidelines did not go far enough to prevent cruelty to the animals.
PETA has previously won changes from other fast food chains, including the largest, McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD - News).
Yum shares were up 43 cents at $30.43 Monday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange (News - Websites). (Additional reporting by Lauren Weber.)
Investors Business Daily, June 25, 2003 Hard copy - Issues and Insights
Feeding Frenzy
Tort Reform: Big Tobacco was just the start. Lawyers and activists now have their sights trained on Big Food, and it's not a sure thing that they would lose.
Not so long ago, few would have dreamed that restaurants or food processors would be targeted, tobacco style, by trial lawyers looking for their next big payday.
In Fact, the satirical newspaper the Onion - as a joke- ran anarticle 3 years ago announcing a $135 billion judgment against Hershey's for making Americans fat. Everyone knew it was a put-on. But that was then, in a slightly more sensible time.
In the intervening years, leaders of the tobacco attack have turned their attention to what is sometimes called (not in jest) Big Food.
A number of them got together over the weekend in a Boston event, fittingly called the First Annual Conference on Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic. John Banzhaf III, a George Washington University professor and much-quoted anti-smoking activist, was a speaker. Another leader in teh tobacco wars, Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard, was one of the conference organizers.
As news reports noted, the conference focused on finding legal strategies against the fast food and snack food industries and the tobacco analogy was a leading theme. That is, find a way to persuade juries, judges and the public that McDonalds or Kraft Foods is knowingly selling unhealthy substances that make people fat-like sugary snacks or fatty fries.
Banzhaf also brought up the addiction angle. According to the Washington Times, he cited a study published in the New Scientist suggesting that foods with fat or sugar share some similarities with addictive drugs in the way they act on the brain.
Don't snicker. The addiction argument can be quite seductive in a legal culture that tends to play down the importance of personal choices. Besides the food fighters don't have to win any big cases in court. They just need to scare highly risk-averse corporations into settling the suits for handsome sums, which amount to a new litigation tax on the food companies and of course, their customers.
Americans might not end up any thinner or healthier as a result; after all, they can still choose to eat too much. But it's a safe guess that unless limits are placed on lawsuits, perhaps such as those in a bill proposed by Rep. Ric Keller, R-FLA, lawyer's wallets will fatten.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, July 4 (Reuters) - Argentine authorities have shut down a McDonald's (NYSE:MCD - News) outlet and a Burger King outside Buenos Aires, saying preliminary tests on food samples showed positive for the potentially deadly E-coli bacteria.
"The closures are a precaution, because two preliminary lab tests were positive for the bacteria on samples taken June 24," Ana Repetto, a senior official for the local government of Moron district, 22 miles (35 km) west of the capital, said on Friday.
Repetto said the two outlets -- closed on Thursday evening -- would remain shut until further tests were completed.
E. coli is a bacteria that causes diarrhea and dehydration, and can be fatal in some extreme cases.
The closures come just two weeks after local McDonald's executives publicly denied the company's products were to blame for the death of a 7-year-old boy in the city of La Plata, south of the capital. The boy's parents maintain he died from food poisoning after eating at the fast food chain.
McDonald's issued a statement on Friday saying it was "surprised at the decision (to close its outlet) on the basis of a test on a raw meat sample, because that is not how the products are delivered to the public."
Repetto said health experts had made clear that cooking at high temperatures may not be enough to eliminate the risk of E-coli, saying the bacteria could be passed on to bread or utensils touched by the pre-cooked meat.
The local unit of Burger King said in a statement it had hired an independent lab to carry out "a parallel test."
"LiteKeeper" is short for "Lighthouse Keeper." I am a great fan of lighthouses, and even more so the many Christian principles that can be illustrated through the lighthouse metaphor. Additionally, Christians are told to "let your light so shine before men that will see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven." As a pastor,I see my role is helping Christians keep the light shining, as did the early light keepers on the shores of our great nation.
Does that help?
PETA contends that the chickens KFC buys from suppliers are abused through drugging, feeding and slaughter practices.
I hear they even kill some of them.
Turns out that PETA had rented the truck from a friend of my brothers' in Maryland, and they'd provided a secured credit card good for only $200.00, which covered the rental cost but not by any stretch the fine and impoundment fees from the DC police.
The owner of the truck had to pay several $$ hundred to retrieve his dumptruck, and the perps haven't paid-up to this day.
PETA hates human beings. Like any criminal enterprise, they'll screw you over in a heartbeat to make their point.
Tried eating PETA members as a substitute- turns out they're way too tough and stringy.
Dogs wouldn't eat 'em, either.
Or fowly as it were.
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