Sharpton joins PETA in boycott of KFC

The Rev. Al Sharpton won't eat at KFC, and he doesn't think you should, either. Starting yesterday, Sharpton was joining forces with the animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to urge a boycott of KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands of Louisville. Sharpton and PETA want the fast food chain to require its chicken suppliers to put in place more humane standards for the 750 million chickens they process for KFC every year in the United States. The rap mogul Russell Simmons is 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," Sharpton said in an eight-minute video that will be shown outside KFCs around the country. PETA was eager to enlist Sharpton because KFC has many stores in African-American communities. In late 2003, KFC executives told investors they were making an increased effort to market to African-Americans. Sharpton and PETA are demanding that KFC force its chicken suppliers, like Pilgrim's Pride and Perdue, to give chickens more space in factory barns and to initiate a process of putting birds to sleep with nitrogen before killing them. They are also asking KFC to stop its suppliers from forcing rapid, hormone-driven growth that could cause the birds to crumple under their own weight. [more]