United Poultry Concerns launched a nationwide campaign to stop the show, which led the David Beitzel Gallery in New York City to cancel the event. Gallery owner David Beitzel told The New York Times, United Poultry Concerns "caused such a ruckus" that he "put an end to it" (James Barron, "They Say Perdue is Bad to the Bone," NYT, Dec. 21, 1999).

UPC members blitzed actor Danny Glover with messages urging him to divorce himself from Perdue and the poultry industry. Wrote one member, "At the very least, it is in very poor taste to encourage children to create images of animals who are being slaughtered. This is the Perdue legacy. Our legacy to the young should rise far above this."

Feb. 2000 - School children in [at least] 31 states are being fed chicken nuggets made from diseased birds, according to federal food-safety inspectors in Alabama. Gold Kist's inspector Ellen Dingler said, "The skin's got sores and bruises and things on it. I won't eat a chicken nugget or a pressed patty or anything because of that--because that skin is mixed in with it, and it's got sores."

Other inspectors described chickens with tumors or coated with pus [later hidden beneath barbecue sauce, crunchies, and grease] knowingly turned into nuggets or other products. John McCutchen, who oversees the US Agriculture Department's food- safety inspectors, said nuggets and patties are approved even though [at least] half the bodies have sores, scabs, or infection [meaning the birds suffered, were sick, and were physically abused]. "If the question is, 'Are birds with sores and scabs being passed and getting the mark of inspection,' the answer is yes," McCutchen said, adding that even with "100 percent inspection," diseased birds would still be sold.