Anderson has bone to pick with Col. Sanders

Calls bust of chicken mogul ‘monument to cruelty’

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updated 2:32 p.m. ET Jan. 16, 2006

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Pamela Anderson is leading a charge to remove a bust of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders from the state Capitol.

The actress called the Kentucky native’s likeness “a monument to cruelty” to chickens in a statement issued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group.

The statement did little to ruffle feathers in Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s office.

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“Colonel Sanders was one of Kentucky’s most distinguished citizens, a great entrepreneur and a fine charitable man of faith, and he certainly has a place in Kentucky history. We believe he warrants appropriate recognition as such,” Fletcher spokeswoman Jodi Whitaker said.

Anderson has been involved in a campaign to raise awareness of conditions in processing plants that supply poultry to the Louisville-based chicken chain.

In a letter to Fletcher, Anderson detailed alleged abuses of chickens by KFC suppliers. Among her claims, she said workers in a slaughterhouse in West Virginia have been filmed tearing the heads off live birds, spitting tobacco in their eyes, spray-painting their faces and slamming them on the ground.

KFC spokeswoman Laurie Schalow called the move to oust the colonel “just another misguided publicity stunt by PETA in their attempt to create a vegan society.”