Today, United Poultry Concerns' President, Karen Davis, called Larry Brayman, the Director of Corporate Affairs for CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's franchises, to inquire whether the "nuggets" ad will be removed, as UPC, other animal advocacy groups, and many California and non-California residents have requested. Mr. Brayman said the company plans to continue running the ad, which shows men poking around the body of a live chickens, looking for the bird's "nuggets." The ad implies an anal search of the chicken's body and is completely offensive. It models itself on scenes of gang rape and on a medical examination of one's body that no one would consent to have publicly aired. It exemplifies the connection that has recently been suggested by UPC President Karen Davis, philosopher Peter Singer, and others between industrial animal agriculture and "bestiality"-human sexual assaults upon other animal species that comport with manipulating them for reproduction and 'meat," as when teams of men-"milkers"-- masturbate male turkeys and roosters for their semen and manually inseminate turkey hens and chicken hens with the semen thus obtained. We are encouraging people to protest to Larry Brayman directly at his St. Louis, MO office at 314-259-6223, and by calling Carl's Jr.'s toll-free number: 1-800-758-2275. "This advertisement combines cruelty with lewdness, and has no business being on the air," says UPC President Karen Davis. "It shows a mean spirit and it teaches bad lessons to children."

UPC President Karen Davis's new book "More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality" (Lantern Books, 2001) discusses the connection between animal agriculture, animal consumption, and human sexual assaults upon, and lewd attitudes towards, nonhuman animals.