Thread: PETA : bankrupt poultry plant into 'Chicken Empathy Museum`

PETA wants Jindal to turn bankrupt poultry plant into 'Chicken Empathy Museum'
by Robert Travis Scott, The Times-Picayune
Thursday March 12, 2009, 7:34 AM

BATON ROUGE -- Chickens have feelings, too. And unappreciated brains.

That's the message delivered Wednesday to Gov. Bobby Jindal by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as the group suggested that Louisiana use state funds to turn a closing Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant in Farmerville into a "Chicken Empathy Museum."


"The museum could feature exhibits such as video footage from research . . . showing how smart chickens are," the group wrote in a letter to Jindal. "The Chicken Empathy Museum will have educational displays that highlight interesting facts about chickens, including that chickens are intelligent animals with mental abilities comparable to cats, dogs and even primates."

PETA, known for its publicity stunts to attract attention to its vegetarian and anti-fur agenda, keyed into Jindal's offer to spend $20 million in state money to assist another company attempting to buy the north Louisiana plant from Pilgrim's Pride, which is in bankruptcy and reducing operations. The closing will put 1,300 people out of work.

Jindal said no to PETA's offer to use its funds along with state money to turn the plant into a "monument to compassion" honoring the barnyard fowl for its intellectual and social qualities rather than as a food.

"This issue is about the future of our people. Not chickens," Jindal said. "I'm from Louisiana. We think of the chicken first and foremost as an eating animal. I think this is a lot of squawking about nothing."

PETA suggested a restaurant at the museum serving "heart-friendly and delicious faux-chicken nuggets and a gift shop that could provide free plush chickens for kids, with tags reading, 'I am not a nugget!'

"Outside the museum, children could clamber through a preserved chicken-transport truck to experience how cramped and uncomfortable the trucks are," PETA suggested. "The museum would also provide area residents with much-needed jobs that are not the high-risk and psychologically damaging jobs associated with slaughter operations."

The PETA letter, signed by the group's executive vice president Tracy Reiman, ended with a request to Jindal to "please contact me so that we can begin the planning process."

David Perle, PETA's senior communications coordinator, said the group understands that its suggestions will sometimes be ignored.

"In the end it's all about bringing attention to it," Perle said.



Robert Travis Scott can be reached at rscott@timespicayune.com


http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009 ... _have.html

Please.....gonna have a hospital room with children dying to show the issues of contaminated vegetables and what happens to people who eat them?

These people have got to be CRAZY!

Outside the museum, children could clamber through a preserved chicken-transport truck to experience how cramped and uncomfortable the trucks are

BATON ROUGE -- Chickens have feelings, too. And unappreciated brains.

That's the message delivered Wednesday to Gov. Bobby Jindal by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as the group suggested that Louisiana use state funds to turn a closing Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant in Farmerville into a "Chicken Empathy Museum."

I'd have loved to have been there to see the look on Jindal's face after reading this message!!!!!!!