Gaithersburg, Md - United Poultry Concerns protesters will urge people to say NO to chicken, YES to animal rights and a healthy vegetarian life. When Nobel Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer was asked why he refused to eat chicken, he said, "It's bad for the health of the chicken."

Why did Md governor Parris Glendening stop eating chickens? His doctors told him to. No wonder. A woman who raises chickens on the Eastern Shore told The Baltimore Sun, chickens are "not very healthy." Chickens are fed "animal byproducts and antibiotics" including ground up chicken heads and the mammalian nervous system tissue responsible for Mad Cow Disease.

USDA inspectors say chickens with tumors, pus, scabs and sores end up beneath barbecue sauce, crunchies, and grease. A great way to make money is to cut off the wings of sick birds and hide their illness and misery in honey barbecue sauce. Much sweeter is the sight of happy chickens at UPC's sanctuary in Virginia. "When people meet the chickens and see how nice they are, they stop thinking of them as food," says UPC protest co-organizer Franklin Wade. "At our KFC protest, each person who sees our signs or takes a leaflet must think about these birds and consider the truth."

United Poultry Concerns is a national nonprofit public information animal advocacy organization promoting the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. For more information, visit our web site at www.UPC-online.org