Anderson sounds the alarm over KFC's 'chicken abuse'

Pamela Anderson, the former Baywatch star and animal rights campaigner, is on the warpath over breasts and busts - of the chicken variety. In Vietnam they are too big. In Kentucky, they are simply out of place.

First came her letter last week to the chief of operations for Kentucky Fried Chicken in Vietnam, accusing the company there of selective breeding of birds to bloat their breasts so egregiously they can barely stand in their cages. In some cases, she claimed, the weight of the birds' chests has led to the snapping of their legs.

Yesterday, news surfaced that Ms Anderson had fired off another missive, this time to the Governor of Kentucky, demanding he remove a bust in the rotunda of his State Capitol. It is a likeness of Colonel Harland Sanders, the company's founder.

"The bust of Colonel Sanders stands as a monument to cruelty and has no place in the Kentucky State Capitol," raged Ms Anderson, who wrote on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), which has long campaigned against alleged abuse in the chicken industry.

In Kentucky they have been through something like this before. Two years ago, a coalition of black leaders requested the removal from the rotunda of a bust of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. They were rebuffed; Ms Anderson can expect a similar response.

"Colonel Sanders was one of Kentucky's most distinguished citizens, a great entrepreneur and a fine, charitable man of faith," fired back a spokeswoman for Governor Ernie Fletcher.

And KFC, which has its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, was similarly dismissive. Its spokeswoman called Ms Anderson's appeal "just another misguided publicity stunt by Peta in their attempt to create a vegan society".

Writing to KFC's head man in Vietnam, Pornchai Thratum, Ms Anderson claimed his chickens are "bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that many become crippled under their own weight".

KFC Vietnam has yet to respond.

Last year, Peta revealed it had video of workers in a West Virginia processing plant tearing the heads off chickens, spitting tobacco in their eyes, slamming them to the ground and spray-painting their faces.