Animal rights group PETA is pushing to turn a former KFC in Fleetwood, Lancashire, into what it says could become the world’s first Chicken Empathy Museum. Campaigners claim it would be a place designed to make visitors see chickens as thinking, feeling animals rather than a takeaway order.
Former fast food unit sought for educational use
The fast food branch shut for good in 2024, and the empty unit has since changed hands, but PETA reckons it could be reborn as a hands-on 'empathy experience'. The non-profit has ideas to include interactive displays on chicken intelligence, emotions and family bonds, plus vegan food to prove people don’t need to kill animals to eat well.
PETA has written a letter to Landwood Property Auctions to ask whether the owner would consider loaning or donating the building for 'educational use'. But Landwood told NeedToKnow it no longer has anything to do with the site, having sold it last summer.
It said: “We are no longer involved with the property, having sold it last summer. We’ve advised PETA of this and suggested they look on Land Registry if they want to track down the current owner.”
Planned exhibits and vision
PETA vice president of vegan projects Dawn Carr said: "Most people know chickens only as nuggets, wings or fillets. Yet these remarkable birds are intelligent, inquisitive individuals with unique personalities."
"Rather than seeing this site simply change hands, we hope its owner might consider allowing PETA to borrow the property – or donate it for educational purposes – so that we could create a Chicken Empathy Museum. Such an attraction would turn a building once associated with selling the parts of dead chickens into one that celebrates the hearts of live ones."
The group says it doesn’t currently run any Chicken Empathy Museums anywhere - and wants Fleetwood’s former KFC to be the first. Among the planned features are exhibits about chicken communication and problem-solving, alongside equipment used in slaughterhouses, aimed at showing what campaigners say happens behind the scenes of meat production.
Owner unknown; local councillor reacts
For now, the big question is: who actually owns the building? Until PETA finds the new landlord, the dream museum is still just an idea on paper.
Local Fleetwood councillor Mary Belshaw previously told the Blackpool Gazette that the "very novel idea" could attract visitors to the town. KFC has been approached for comment.
