Members of the animal rights lobby group Peta staged a protest outside a Dublin secondary school yesterday, calling on fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to improve its animal welfare record.
The protesters, carrying placards and handing out "bloody buckets" to students from Ard Scoil La Salle secondary school in Raheny, claimed that despite the recommendations of KFC's own animal welfare advisory panel, it refuses to eliminate the "worst abuses" of its suppliers.
The buckets included a plastic chicken with its throat slit, fake blood and an evil "Col Sanders" figure.
Peta says one of its undercover investigators in the US caught KFC workers kicking, throwing and stamping on live birds. Similar undercover investigations into KFC suppliers in Germany, India, Australia and the UK had found chickens who were being kept in crowded, filthy conditions, Peta claims.
However, a spokeswoman for KFC said previous acts of "corporate terrorism" by Peta were simply designed as "publicity stunts to promote vegetarianism".
"We believe that targeting children in this way crosses the line of acceptable behaviour," she said. "KFC only represents a very small part of the Irish chicken supply - less than 3 per cent - and uses the same suppliers as other leading retailers. All our suppliers meet or exceed all EU regulations."
The principal of Ard Scoil La Salle, Stephen Jordan, was unavailable for comment yesterday. George O'Callaghan of the joint managerial body, which represents the school's management, yesterday said he had "no idea" why it had been chosen for the protest.
"It is highly inappropriate to be holding a protest like this outside schools. It might be upsetting to the kids as well," he said.
"If Peta wants to conduct an educational campaign, it should talk to the people running the school, or ourselves. Otherwise it might be counter-productive."
However, speaking at the protest, Yvonne Taylor of Peta said it had received a "fantastic" reaction from students. "The KFC campaign will go on until KFC implements the advice of its own advisory panel," she said.