KFC rules the roost, beats PETA in bid to pave streets in Warren

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — The city will not be home to any city-sanctioned anti-Kentucky Fried Chicken campaigns, despite an offer made recently by the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Mayor Michael O’Brien issued a press release Friday saying he has received a check from Kentucky Fried Chicken for $3,000. The money will be used to buy about 15 truck loads (about 40 tons) of hot patch to repair city streets.

“The mayor is pleased to accept this $3,000 from KFC and appreciates the KFC restaurant chains doing business in our city,” the press release said.

But in late April, O’Brien was weighing an offer from PETA that involved treating KFC a very different way.

PETA, after learning that KFC had awarded the city $3,000 as long as the city would stencil the words “Re-freshed by KFC” on two repaired potholes, offered to give the city $6,000 if it would instead stencil “KFC tortures animals” on a pothole, along with a devilish rendering of Colonel Harlan Sanders, founder of the national restaurant chain.

O’Brien said at the time he had 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.”

KFC did not return a phone call seeking comment on PETA’s offer or the mayor’s decision to consider it.

PETA later sweetened the deal by offering to provide free vegetarian lunches to street workers while they worked on the roads.

When asked about PETA on Friday afternoon, O’Brien said he decided to decline the $6,000 from PETA after considering the negative impact PETA’s stencil would have on a company that has two restaurants in the city.

“I’m not going to be involved in any negative publicity in the area,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien received the offer from KFC to get the free road patch by filling out an entry on the Internet that required him to describe the condition of the city’s streets.

O’Brien applied, along with 13 other cities, and then Warren was selected in a random drawing.

runyan@vindy.com