City's Excuses for Rejecting Sculpture Don't Fly With First Amendment Guarantees, Says Group
For Immediate Release:
June 8, 2011
Contact:
Ashley Gonzalez 202-483-7382
Little Rock, Ark. — PETA's attorneys have fired off a letter to Little Rock City Attorney Thomas Carpenter explaining that the city's excuses for denying PETA a permit to display a sculpture of a crippled chicken with a decidedly anti-McDonald's message is in violation of PETA's free speech rights. The 65-inch fiberglass statue, which was designed by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss, depicts a battered, bloody chicken limping on crutches and bears the inscription "McCruelty: i'm hatin' it." The statue also features PETA's McCruelty campaign logo—the image of a bloody chicken hanging between two golden arches.
"People deserve to know that every time they buy a box of McNuggets, they are paying McDonald's to break chickens' legs and scald the animals to death," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Once the city of Little Rock acknowledges PETA's constitutional rights, the crippled-chicken statue will help educate residents about the misery that goes into making every Happy Meal."
PETA originally applied to place the statue at 701 Broadway, but the city responded that it had no authority to grant a permit for that location because the road is a state highway. PETA reapplied for a permit; this time, for a location near a McDonald's on Seventh Street, which is a city street. On June 2, PETA received a letter from Carpenter rejecting the application on public-safety grounds, even though PETA clearly illustrated in its application that the sculpture would not interfere with pedestrian right-of-way and noted that the city has granted countless permits to place similarly sized items—such as benches—on sidewalks. PETA also noted that the chicken statue was on display in Raleigh, N.C., for a month amid parked bicycles, planters, and street furniture without causing harm to passersby.
The statue is intended to represent the millions of chickens killed annually for McDonald's. During slaughter, birds are slammed upside down by their legs into metal shackles—a procedure that often results in broken wings and legs. Birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks. PETA wants McDonald's to require its suppliers to switch to a less cruel method of chicken slaughter that has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and that is already used by several of McDonald's European suppliers.
For more information, please visit PETA's website McCruelty.com.