Animal rights organizations protest campus KFC

By: Erin Corbett

Posted: 9/16/08

The Syracuse Animal Rights Organization held a public protest against Syracuse University's support of KFC Corp. Monday afternoon. The protest focused on improving KFC's treatment of chickens and removing the restaurant chain's presence on campus.

Student representatives and community volunteers of the group, including one individual dressed as a bright yellow bird, demonstrated outside Kimmel Hall, home to a campus KFC. Members of SARO colored the sidewalk with chalk messages against KFC and collected student signatures and e-mail addresses to form a petition against the restaurant.

"We are asking (KFC) to adopt some minimum animal welfare guidelines that they so far have refused to listen to," said Amber Coon, campaign coordinator of SARO. "So we're hoping that (by) getting on campus and getting around … that KFC will have to choose between listening to their customers and listening to the fact that animals feel pain and need to be treated well, or they're not going to do business anymore."

Monday was the first day this year that the group has publicly protested KFC, said Ryan Huling, a community volunteer who helped organize the demonstration.

"We understood that it was an obligation of ours, working with this student group, to hopefully get rid of this company or at the very least make some improvements," Huling said.

SARO has been pressuring the school to get rid of the popular campus restaurant on campus, Huling added.

"Obviously when students hear about what happens to chickens killed for KFC ... it's not the kind of company they want to support," he said.

While some students signed SARO's petition, others passed by the protest.

"I agree with what they're doing, but I'm really not a big fan of PETA," said Mark Carey, a junior illustration and computer science major.

Carey took one of the fliers produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that SARO was passing out, but he did not put his name on the petition.

PETA was founded in 1980 and is the only international organization that has publicly denounced KFC for its treatment of animals. It has two million members worldwide, and one of its main projects over the last several years has been to stop KFC.

While PETA has brought its evidence of KFC's cruelty to the government, little action has been taken to prosecute the franchise, Huling said. One reason, Huling said, is because the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act excludes chickens in indicating what is and is not humane in terms of animal treatment.

"It's tough because, what (the protesters are) doing, I guess it's right," Carey said. "But I'm choosing between KFC and PETA. It's a tough decision. Maybe I should have signed. But I really don't like PETA, so I'm not going to."

Ethan Young, a junior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, signed SARO's list.

"I think it's a good cause," he said. "I'm usually not on the side of PETA, but this sounds like a pretty reasonable cause. They bring up a good point: We wouldn't do this to dogs and cats ... I agree with it on that end."

SARO, along with members of PETA, will be on campus today for another protest outside Kimmel.

emcorbet@syr.edu