Good news...Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group Boycott KFC!

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juliatat
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Good news...Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group Boycott KFC!

Post by juliatat »

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/busin ... oref=login


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

By MELANIE WARNER


Published: February 2, 2005

The 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
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Jennifer
White Honkey Bitch In Charge
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Re: Good news...Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group Boycott KFC!

Post by Jennifer »

juliatat,
Yeah-I knew he joined us in the fight!!! It's wonderful!!
Thanks for posting!! :-x
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City Love
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Re: Good news...Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group Boycott KFC!

Post by City Love »

juliatat,

Who says rap music is only interested in cars, hoes and rims? (They spinnin nigga, they spinnin!!) ;) ;)

Hip Hop's Simmons Joins KFC Boycott

Feb 14, 8:19 AM EST

NEW YORK - Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons has joined other celebrities and activists who have criticized Kentucky Fried Chicken, saying he will call for a boycott if the company doesn't reform its slaughter practices.
Simmons called slaughter practices used by the fast-food chain's suppliers "grossly inhumane" and has filmed a commercial "showing some of the very worst abuses chickens undergo" before they are served to customers, the Daily News reported Sunday.

Simmons, who is chairman of Def Jam Records and is a vegan, said he has talked to officials of Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, and said he will release the ad and start a boycott if the company does not reform its practices.

"When a company targets our community, disrespects us as consumers and sells us products ridden with negative energy and laced with toxins, that is our business," said Simmons.
Other celebrities and activists who have raised their voices against KFC include the Rev. Al Sharpton, comedian and social activist Dick Gregory, actress Pamela Anderson and musician Paul McCartney.

Yum! Brands vice president Jonathan Blum disputed Simmons' claim.

"We have an independent panel of outside experts who set our high standards," said Blum. "They are the same standards that all our competitors use to insure human treatment around the country."
juliatat
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Re: Good news...Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group Boycott KFC!

Post by juliatat »

City Love, yes!!!!!
Anditsdeeptoo
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Re: Good news...Sharpton Joins With an Animal Rights Group Boycott KFC!

Post by Anditsdeeptoo »

This is really gaining steam, I had Russell Simmons and Reverend Run on the air here in Denver for All-Star weekend on friday and they made an emotional appeal to KFC to stop poisoning us with chickens treated with arsenic and other harmful hormones and pleading for a more humane killing procedures. Lets keep the pressure on people!!
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