PETA Makes Indy Offer To Counter KFC Sponsorship

In response to KFC's new plan to sponsor Indianapolis' fire hydrants and extinguishers, animal-rights group PETA has offered to pay for advertising opposing cruelty to chickens on the city's fire trucks.

A city spokeswoman, Jen Pittman, told IndyStar.com that the city would "engage in sponsorship discussion with any organization that is willing to bring a serious idea to the table for private solutions to meet a public need."

"However, any partnership has to meet guidelines we established for these types of activities," Pittman said.

PETA's letter to Mayor Greg Ballard is reposted below:

January 7, 2010

The Honorable Greg Ballard

Mayor

Indianapolis, Indiana

Dear Mayor Ballard,

We at PETA heard that KFC is paying to advertise on your fire hydrants. We know that times are tough, but instead of promoting a cruel and unhealthy product, we'd like to counteract the ads with one of our own. We will donate an equal $7,500 to your fire department if you will wrap your fire trucks with our Kentucky Fried Cruelty ad (see attached). PETA's ads will offset your budget woes as well as extinguish KFC's efforts to sell its cruel products to Indianapolis residents.

Chickens killed for KFC's fast-food outlets grow up in filthy, extremely crowded sheds, mired in their own waste with no room even to spread their wings. They are drugged and bred to grow so large so quickly that their young bones often become crippled under the weight of their massive upper bodies. At the slaughterhouse, the birds often suffer broken wings and legs when they are dumped from trucks--they are handled as if they were bricks, not living beings made of flesh and blood. Then their legs are slammed into metal shackles--usually resulting in more broken bones--and they have their throats cut while they are still conscious. Many birds are scalded to death when they enter the defeathering tanks.

Members of KFC's own animal welfare advisory board have resigned in disgust at KFC's failure to stop the worst abuses of chickens raised and killed for its restaurants. PETA's ads would ask residents to boycott KFC until they make basic animal welfare improvements.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tracy Reiman Executive Vice President