Animal-Rights Group Uses Real Estate in Protest

Yum Brands, a fast-food conglomerate that made a bid for a Norfolk, Va., property it hoped would become the site of a new Taco Bell restaurant, was surprised to discover that the land’s owner was the PETA Foundation, an arm of the animal-rights nonprofit group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, The New York Times reports.

Yum Brands offered $1-million for the land but did not know the identity of the owner.

Yesterday PETA officials made a counteroffer that it would give Yum the warehouse on the property free if the company agreed to changes for all of its KFC restaurants. Among the requirements: that chicken suppliers phase out the use of nontherapeutic antibiotics, stop breeding chickens with oversize breasts that make it difficult for the birds to walk, and use inert gas, rather than electric stunning, to kill chickens.

The company refused the offer. “We don’t do business with corporate terrorists and, therefore, we no longer have any interest in this property,” said Laurie Schalow, a KFC spokeswoman.