KFC bid drives animal anti-cruelty group to respond
STAFF REPORT
WARREN — The organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals believes it has a better deal to repair city roads.
After hearing about the KFC restaurant chain’s offer to give the city $3,000 to help repair potholes, PETA has offered to double the cash if the city will turn its back on the restaurant chain and support animal rights.
The city, meanwhile, says it has asked KFC whether it is willing to match PETA’s “latest offer.”
PETA wrote a letter this week to Warren Mayor Michael O’Brien offering to give the city $6,000 if it will stencil artwork from PETA — instead of artwork for KFC — on potholes.
The PETA artwork would contain a likeness of the restaurant’s founder, Colonel Harlan Sanders, with horns on either side of his head and words “KFC tortures animals.”
“Warren streets may have suffered damage, but it’s nothing compared to what chickens endure on the way to KFC’s buckets and boxes,” wrote Tracy Reiman, PETA’s executive vice president.
PETA contends that chickens raised for the restaurant chain unnecessarily suffer before and during their slaughter.
KFC had offered to provide $3,000 worth of hot patch to the city as long as the city agreed to stencil the message “Re-freshed by KFC” on two repaired potholes.
O’Brien said Friday afternoon he has contacted KFC to tell them the “latest offer” on the table from PETA is $6,000, “and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
A spokesman for Yum! Brands, parent company of KFC, did not return a phone call seeking comment, but the company’s Web site contains a message saying the company is committed to the humane treatment of animals.
KFC does not own, raise or transport animals, the message says, but as a major purchaser of food products, Yum! has an opportunity and responsibility to influence the way animals supplied to the company are treated.
“We are monitoring our suppliers on an ongoing basis to determine whether our suppliers are using humane procedures for caring for and handling animals they supply to us,” the Web site says.