Tag: Benjamin Goldsmith

PETA’s Anti-KFC Protest Draws More Customers

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ Benjamin Goldsmith organized a protest against a KFC in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But along with 10 protesters, the activists attracted additional customers to the restaurant.

According to the Associated Press,

Jacqueline Newbold, a supervisor at KFC, said at an uncommon rush of customers required the store to call extra employees at work.

“We had a line going out the door and through the lobby,” Newbold said.

. . .

During the first four hours of business, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Monday, the store had 211 customers compared with 130 the Monday before, supervisor John Simmons said Tuesday.

KFC customer Rusty Smith summed up one view of the protest, telling the Associated Press,

I think there’s a place in this world for all God’s creations . . . right next to the mashed potatoes.

Protester Marcos Carillo chalked such attitudes down to ignorance,

People don’t understand.

No, as I’ve said before, people understand exactly what animal rights activists are demanding, which is why their views are so overwhelmingly rejected by the larger culture.

Source:

Protest draws extra customers. Associated Press, August 3, 2005.

PETA Targets Children in Idaho

In April, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ activists Benjamin Goldsmith and Lidya Hardy targeted schools in Idaho with their anti-chicken message, despite PETA’s claims that it does not target children.

The two appeared at Irving Middle School, where Goldsmith handed out PETA’s “Chicken Chumps” cards while Hardy paraded in a chicken suit with a sign saying “I Am Not A Nugget.” At Irving, PETA faced a few protestors of its own. According to the Idaho State Journal, Adam McKinney stood across the street from the PETA protesters holding a sign reading, “PETA=Propaganda.”

Goldsmith showed up again later at Eagle Rock Junior High School handing out the anti-chicken cards. According to television station KIFI, parents were not happy with having their children targeted by PETA.

Parent Jennifer Locascio told KIFI,

It does make me mad because I think it’s a parents right to teach the kids what things to believe in and their own opinions. I don’t think it’s a stranger’s right to come start handing out things.

Goldsmith told KIFI that PETA is not doing anything different than what the meat industry itself does,

These kids go home everyday and they turn on the television and they see ads like KFC, the chicken industry . . . that eating chicken is healthy and eating chicken is fun. That’s just not the truth. When these kids learn how chickens are treated, they don’t want to eat it anymore.

Of course the chicken industry, to my knowledge, has never made the sort of bald-faced lie about its marketing tactics as PETA has when the animal rights group has consistently claimed it does not target children.

Source:

Local parents are outraged at PETA. KIFI, April 5, 2005.

PETA stands up for chickens: Two demonstrators cry fowl over consumption of birds. Greg McReyonlds, April 2005.