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Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group (PETA!) in Calling for a Boycott of KFC
NY Times ^ | 2.2.05 | MELANIE WARNER

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: animalrights; animalwhackos; crazyal; kfc; peta
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1 posted on 02/01/2005 8:08:55 PM PST by mhking
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To: rdb3; Khepera; elwoodp; MAKnight; condolinda; mafree; Trueblackman; FRlurker; Teacher317; ...
Crazy Al meets PETA. Sounds like a comic book...

 

Double-barrelled Mega-PING! to both lists! If you want on, FReepmail me!

2 posted on 02/01/2005 8:09:50 PM PST by mhking (Do not mess with dragons, for thou art crunchy & good with ketchup...)
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To: mhking

KFC maybe. Popeye's never!


3 posted on 02/01/2005 8:09:54 PM PST by MisterRepublican (Liberalism kills.)
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To: mhking

Boycott KFC, go to Popeyes!


4 posted on 02/01/2005 8:10:41 PM PST by stainlessbanner (Don't mess with old guys wearing overhauls.)
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To: mhking

PETA has a second name: PAETP
(People Against the Ethical Treatment of People)


5 posted on 02/01/2005 8:10:56 PM PST by srm913
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To: mhking

There is a joke here, but I am not going to be the one to make it.


6 posted on 02/01/2005 8:10:57 PM PST by NeoCaveman (Route-82.blogspot.com - "I can't help it, there I go again")
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To: MisterRepublican

Hey - you stole my line : )


7 posted on 02/01/2005 8:11:03 PM PST by stainlessbanner (Don't mess with old guys wearing overhauls.)
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To: MisterRepublican

Hmmm, there must be some dark meat/white meat issue connected to this PETA controversy that I'm unaware of.


8 posted on 02/01/2005 8:12:13 PM PST by Steve_Stifler
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To: dubyaismypresident

Go on. You know you want to.


9 posted on 02/01/2005 8:12:23 PM PST by secret garden (Go Spurs Go!)
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To: mhking
Why don't we send Sharpton with Jackson on his latest publicity junket that masquerades as a hostage negotiation in Iraq? With any luck they would exchange themselves for the hostage.
10 posted on 02/01/2005 8:12:28 PM PST by drt1
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To: mhking

Go for it Al! Leaves more chicken for me.


11 posted on 02/01/2005 8:12:39 PM PST by taxesareforever
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To: stainlessbanner

Whacko Al just keeps going...but what is he going to eat for lunch if he boycotts KFC???? What a fool...PETA??? Talk about birds of feather??


12 posted on 02/01/2005 8:13:31 PM PST by EagleUSA
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To: dubyaismypresident
There is a joke here, but I am not going to be the one to make it.

Yeah. Something about "chicken-eatin' preachers." I'm not gonna go there either...[g]

13 posted on 02/01/2005 8:13:33 PM PST by mhking (Do not mess with dragons, for thou art crunchy & good with ketchup...)
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To: mhking

THIS is going to make you laugh.

But the BEST product you can get at KFC in Ireland is their corn on the cob!

I love it.

Every time I go in, I buy some fries, and two corn.

(I like the chicken too..but I like their corn more)


14 posted on 02/01/2005 8:14:05 PM PST by Happygal (liberalism - a narrow tribal outlook largely founded on class prejudice)
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To: mhking
I'm sorry, I have a great deal of trouble believing 'Tawana Brawley' Sharpton would do anything that involved passing up a meal.

Especially one that involved fried chicken.
15 posted on 02/01/2005 8:14:28 PM PST by Dr.Zoidberg (Children classics updated for Islam, "If you're happy and you know it, go Kaboom!")
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To: dubyaismypresident
There is a joke here, but I am not going to be the one to make it.

Al Sharpton and a chicken? A little too on the nose, don't you think?

16 posted on 02/01/2005 8:15:37 PM PST by bad company (if guns cause crime, then keyboards cause spelling mistakes)
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To: Happygal

You're right. I did laugh. ; )


17 posted on 02/01/2005 8:16:46 PM PST by MisterRepublican (Liberalism kills.)
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To: mhking

I'm sure Sharpton wants a more humane killing of chickens, probably by choking them. Sharpton, the king chicken-choker.


18 posted on 02/01/2005 8:17:30 PM PST by Brett66 (W1 W1 W1 W1 W1 W1 W1 W1)
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To: secret garden

Don't encourage me.


19 posted on 02/01/2005 8:18:43 PM PST by NeoCaveman (Route-82.blogspot.com - "I can't help it, there I go again")
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To: mhking

Al must not be doing well politically. Shilling fer dollars.

I'm going for KFC very soon!


20 posted on 02/01/2005 8:19:03 PM PST by Jaded (Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. - Mark Twain)
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