Governor to Pamela: Cluck Off!

Wed., Jan. 25, 2006 2:00 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Here's one bust Pamela Anderson won't be getting rid of.

Kentucky's governor has rejected a plea from the buxom beauty to remove a bust of late KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders from the state Capitol. Anderson, speaking on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have been protesting the fast food empire for alleged animal cruelty.

Governor Ernie Fletcher responded in a letter sent Friday to the Stacked star.

"We have no plans to remove or change anything about the display," Fletcher wrote. "Colonel Sanders remains a Kentucky icon. His success story has been an inspiration to many. The industry he began has employed hundreds of thousands of workers over the years. His business and his legacy have been good for Kentucky."

For the past two years, Anderson has been the face of PETA's Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, which calls for a boycott against KFC if it doesn't end what the animal-friendly group says is the mistreatment of cluckers at factory fams that supply poultry to the Louisville-based fried-chicken purveyors.

Last week, the 38-year-old former Baywatch beachcomber fired off a letter to Fletcher detailing allegations of decidedly un-finger-lickin'-good behavior at a West Virginia slaughterhouse. An undercover PETA operative videotaped workers there boiling birds alive in tanks of scalding water, tearing the heads off live hens, slamming the birds against walls, stomping on them and spitting tobacco in their eyes.

In a statement issued by PETA, Anderson groused that Sanders' bust "stands as a monument to cruelty and has no place in the Kentucky State Capitol."

While Fletcher refused to bust a move and move the bust, he said he did appreciate having a new pen pal.

"I hope you will feel free to contact me any time an issue is important to you," he wrote.

Fletcher's correspondence didn't placate Anderson. She has written a second missive saying that in addition to propagating his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, Sanders' company "mutilates God's creatures."

There was no immediate comment from Fletcher or KFC on Wednesday, although the fast food chain said that Anderson's effort to have the Sanders bust removed was merely "another misguided publicity stunt by PETA in their attempt to create a vegan society."