Posted on 02/01/2005 8:08:54 PM PST by mhking
he Rev. Al Sharpton will not eat at KFC and he doesn't think you should either.
Starting today, Mr. Sharpton is joining forces with the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to urge a boycott of KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands of Louisville, Ky. Mr. Sharpton and PETA want the fast food chain to require its chicken suppliers to put in place new standards for the treatment of the 750 million chickens they process for KFC every year in the United States. The rap mogul Russell Simmons is also joining the Sharpton campaign.
"If we give our money to KFC, we're paying for a life of misery for some of God's most helpless creatures," says Mr. Sharpton in an eight-minute video that will be shown outside KFC's around the country.
PETA has been waging a campaign against KFC for two years. The organization was eager to enlist Mr. Sharpton because KFC has many stores in largely black neighborhoods and in late 2003 KFC executives told investors they were making an increased effort to market to blacks.
Mr. Sharpton and PETA are demanding that KFC force its chicken suppliers, like Pilgrim's Pride and Perdue, to give chickens more room in factory barns and to make use of a process that puts birds to sleep with nitrogen before they are killed. They are also asking KFC to stop its suppliers from forcing such rapid, hormone-driven growth that the birds crumple under their own weight.
PETA said that unlike other companies, KFC has been largely unresponsive. "KFC has been by far the most stubborn corporation we have attempted to work with," said PETA's president, Ingrid Newkirk, in a written statement.
Yum Brands, which also own Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, declined to comment on PETA's demands and allegations. "PETA is an organization more interested in promoting vegetarianism than the truth," a spokesman, Jonathan Blum, said.
PETA recently won a concession from McDonald's, which said it would study the possibility of requiring American suppliers to use the process of so-called controlled-atmosphere killing.
Several years ago, in response to PETA's "Unhappy Meal" campaign, McDonald's, which buys one of every 20 eggs sold in America, agreed to buy eggs only from farms offering hens extra water, more wing room in their cages and fresh air.
PETA says it has chosen to shed light on the chicken industry in recent years because large chicken producers and sellers have made little movement toward more humane practices. "The chicken industry is way behind the beef and pork industries," said Dr. Temple Grandin, associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University and a member of Yum Brands' animal welfare advisory council. "They need to work on getting some of the same auditing systems in place."
Animal welfare specialists like Dr. Grandin agree with PETA that the short lives of chickens need to be improved. Dr. Grandin said that as many as 6 percent of birds suffer broken wings or legs when workers pack them into crates and onto trucks.
"A lot of workers aren't adequately trained," said Dr. Mohan Raj, a senior research fellow at the University of Bristol in Britain and a veterinarian who has studied chicken welfare practices in the United States.
Animal rights activists are hardly KFC's only problem. In recent years, the company has been the financial stepchild at Yum Brands. Last year KFC's same-store sales were down 2 percent; sales increased at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
I am sure with Sharpton's support, chickens just clucked a collective cluck of relief.
Pass me some more of them mashed taters and corn please.
"When I go to KFC, I always get a Hillary Clinton special. Two small breasts and a left wing.
You should 'super size' that. If you do, they'll throw in a couple large thighs too.
Now this is strange news.
I'll bet that Al has cost the lives of many chickens over the years.
They probably shudder at the mention of his name.
He may say he's boycotting the chain, but watch the news for him to be caught at one any day now.
LOL!!
Al is looking for shakedown money as he bombed in the last election.
1963 - Martin Luther King says "I have a dream" as he demands freedom for African-Americans.
2005 - Al Sharpton says "I have a drumstick" as demands a better life for KFC's menu.
Clearly, progress has been made somewhere. Or has it?
OK, I want some chicken
ROFL
Al dreams of a place where lunch is not judged by the crispiness of the skin, but by the net content of the bucket.
Sharpton is just trying to shake KFC down.
If they stand up to him,I will buy more chicken from them.
Before you all become convinced that I am a bigot, I want to preface this with: My 18 year old stepdaughter, that I have raised since she was three, is Down Syndrome and Autistic. That being said. Temple Grandin is an odd case. She was supposedly severly Autistic and somehow got cured and part of that cure was her desiging cattle pens and shoots that made the cattle feel more secure. She knew this because she too felt more secure in them.
""If we give our money to KFC, we're paying for a life of misery for some of God's most helpless creatures," says Mr. Sharpton ..."
Yeah, but the helpless creatures sure taste good.
sorry, I let the chimp type for awhile..shoots=shutes
He didn't say protesting KFC, he said go tasting some KFC. By the size of him and Russell Simmons I don't think they could drive by a KFC without stopping in for a bite or two.
I hear the thighs are huge with that order.
Just one joke.....ahh come on we can do better than that.
I think Al needs to boycott his hairdresser.....his hair is seriously screwed up....(and I don't think it is on purpose).
I was a die hard KFC fan when I lived up north, but after I moved here to DC and tried Popeyes...well, I think I found a new team!
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