Sharpton Boycotts KFC

[Guest guest]

February

2, 2005

Sharpton

Joins With an Animal Rights Group in Calling for a Boycott of KFC

By

MELANIE WARNER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Copyright

2005 The New York Times

Company