Bid to turn ex-KFC into 'Chicken Empathy Museum'

Animal rights campaigners have said they want to turn a former KFC into the world's first "Chicken Empathy Museum".

Campaign group PETA has written to Landwood Property Auctions enquiring about a former KFC in Fleetwood, Lancashire. It is asking if it can "borrow" the property or whether it could be "donated for educational purposes".

The letter from Dawn Carr, the group's Vegan Project vice-president states: "Visitors could learn about chickens' intelligence and emotional lives... and enjoy delicious vegan food proving that nobody needs to kill animals for a meal."

Both KFC and Landwood Property Auctions have been approached for comment.

Local councillor Mary Belshaw said it was "a novel idea".

She said she would "rather have a chicken empathy museum than another large empty property on our high street".

"Who knows? It could become a huge attraction for the town," she added.

Exhibits would include interactive displays about chickens' sophisticated communication skills, problem-solving abilities and family bonds, alongside displays of slaughterhouse equipment.

Carr said: "Most people know chickens only as 'nuggets', 'wings', or 'fillets', yet these remarkable birds are intelligent, inquisitive individuals with their own unique personalities.

"They can recognise dozens of other chickens, communicate through a sophisticated range of vocalisations and even perform basic arithmetic.

"Mother hens talk to their chicks before they hatch and the chicks begin communicating back from inside the egg."

MP Cat Smith, whose constituency office was next to the empty restaurant, has been asked to comment, as has the current Fleetwood MP Lorraine Beavers.

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