Rev. Al Sharpton Preaches Compassion for Chickens
Black community leader the Rev. Al Sharpton has never been shy
about raising his voice—whether it’s on the pulpit or
on the presidential campaign trail. Now, Sharpton is speaking up
for the nearly 800 million chickens raised and killed each year
for KFC, which announced plans at its investor meeting to market
more heavily to African-Americans.
Rev. Sharpton has filmed an appeal to be screened at KFC in urban
centers across America, calling on the black community to boycott
KFC until the company makes basic improvements in animal welfare.
In the video, Sharpton outlines the
abuses that chickens raised for KFC suffer and takes KFC to
task. Sharpton says, “KFC is not black owned, but it sure
knows to market heavily to African Americans … obviously hoping
we won’t care about what they do the underdog, or in this
case, the underchicken … So, if KFC wants to take our
money and use it to pay for sloppy practices that hurt animals—I
say we send them a message that this is not going to happen. I’m
calling on people to boycott KFC until they adopt animal welfare
systems recommended by PETA and until they stop the worst abuses
of the birds they raise for their restaurants.”
Rev. Sharpton isn’t the first civil rights leader to endorse
PETA’s campaign. He joins comedian and activist Dick
Gregory, former NAACP President Kweisi
Mfume, scholars Derrick
Bell and Cornel
West, author Alice
Walker, and hip-hop mogul Russell
Simmons, as well as Pam
Anderson, Sir
Paul McCartney, the Dalai
Lama, and others in condemning KFC’s cruelty to animals.
Click
here to add your name to the list and let KFC know that its
cruel treatment of animals will not be tolerated.
Click
here to support PETA’s work in behalf of factory-farmed animals
who are suffering for KFC and other fast-food restaurants.
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