A Skirmish In the Culture Wars

The Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

A human inside an injured-chicken costume, hobbling in protest on the sidewalk Wednesday in front of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, didn’t achieve the desired effect, according to many who dined there.

Brad Steig called Wednesday’s protest in Grand Junction by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals good advertising for KFC.

The protest consisted of four adults and one child holding signs in front of the restaurant, handing out fliers and DVDs and urging people to not eat at KFC until the restaurant buys chickens from humane vendors.

Steig, a manager for Halliburton, said he heard about the PETA protest on the radio and decided right then to eat at KFC on Wednesday, the day of the protest.

Not only that, but he bought seven of the biggest buckets of chicken and all the side dishes and used four trips to load them into his Halliburton pickup to treat his co-workers.

“I detest that organization,” Steig said, adding PETA tries to harm the economy because of personal agendas.

Jim Shults dined at KFC with his wife, Deb, on Wednesday just because of the PETA protest, he said. Shults called his lunch a preemptive strike, he said.

“I’m going to kill chickens before they kill me with bird flu,” said Shults. He called PETA “People Eating Tasty Animals.”

When he heard about the protest, he decided “instantaneously this is where we were going to eat today,” he said.

Deb Shults ate chicken strips, and said, “I’m killing one of their pot pies.”

A group of Grand Junction High School students brought their chicken to the curb to eat in front of the costume chicken and the protesters.

A big man in a big pickup rolled by, growling out his open window, “I eat chicken ... lots of chicken.”

Read more about the American heroes here.