Blue Chickens Air Show

You'll find today's Blue Angels show schedule in Saturday's Pensacola News Journal. Oddly, the paper doesn't mention the post-show Pensacola Beach fly-over by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is planned for 3:30 to 6:30 pm.

Apparently, this will be the first time PETA has taken to the air anywhere -- physically, that is -- in its nationwide campaign against KFC's alleged cruelty to chickens:

Towing a banner reading, "BOYCOTT KFC CRUELTY," and a billboard featuring a demonic, blood-soaked "Colonel Sanders" in the act of stabbing a chicken, an airplane hired by PETA will make several passes over Pensacola's crowded beaches tomorrow after the Blue Angels show.

Sounds like fun, eh? We can hardly wait to watch the Youtube film clips while munching our deep-fat fried chicken strips.

Joking aside, this PETA initiative is serious enough that KFC Canada, an independent corporation, recently agreed to undertake a series of reforms in how its suppliers keep and slaughter chickens:

[T]he deal obliges KFC Canada to begin buying from suppliers who use gas to kill their chickens painlessly, considered to be the least cruel method of slaughter.

The company is also promising to insist on other “animal-welfare friendly” measures relating to how the birds are kept, including a maximum on crowding and phasing out non-essential growth-hormones and other drugs.

Customers of the popular restaurant chain will also be able to order a vegan “chicken” item, according to the deal that followed almost seven months of at-times “sticky” closed-door negotiations.

News accounts relate that the video by Baywatch TV star Pamela Anderson, which went viral a year ago, had a lot to do with pressuring persuading KFC Canada to mend its ways. Here it is for your consuming pleasure -- and pass the tofu, would you please?