Animal rights group wants to erect own Colonel Sanders statue in downtown Corbin

While efforts are continuing to erect a bronze statue of Corbin’s most famous citizen, Colonel Harland Sanders, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants to use a different medium to erect its own monument to the Colonel — chicken feces.

In a letter to Sharae Myers, director of the Corbin Main Street Program, PETA officials are seeking a permit to erect its own life-size statue of Sanders in the downtown area.

“We are willing to work with the city if they can give us a spot that doesn’t impede traffic but is still visible and accessible,” PETA officials said.

The statue will be made of chicken feces in order to make consumers aware of the conditions the group claims the chickens live in until they are butchered and served up with the Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices PETA officials said.

“Before Colonel Sanders is memorialized in bronze as planned, PETA wants to remind Corbin residents that cruelty is the main ingredient in KFC’s Original Recipe,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in the letter.

Reiman specified that the chickens live mired in their own waste for up to six weeks before they are taken to the slaughterhouse. At the slaughterhouse, PETA officals said many of the chickens have their throats cut while they are still conscious while others are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

“KFC refuses to lift a finger to improve conditions for the nearly 1 billion chickens kill for its restaurants worldwide,” Reiman added.

If Colonel Sanders had treated cats and dogs the way KFC’s suppliers treat chickens, he would have spent his golden years behind bars,” she said.

In 2003, Yum Brands, which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, adopted what officials called guidelines and audits for the humane raising and handling of poultry, including insuring the poultry is properly fed and is housed in a clean, well-ventilated and protected environment.

"KFC is committed to the h umane treatment of poultry used for our products," said Cheryl Bachelder, KFC president. "Our new guidelines will strengthen KFC’s animal welfare practices and KFC is proud to be leading the industry in adopting these new standards that improve conditions for poultry at the farm level."