Oh well they needed a bit more space on the day.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Pamela Anderson is boycotting the Kentucky Derby.
The 38-year-old actress, who is an animal rights activist, won't attend the famed horse race because of its sponsorship deal with the parent company of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
"It makes me want to avoid Kentucky altogether, which is sad because there are so many great people there," Anderson said in a statement released Tuesday by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Anderson, a PETA member who attended the Derby in 2001 and 2003, has been involved in a campaign to raise awareness of what she calls abuse of chickens in processing plants that supply poultry to Louisville-based KFC.
"Like most people, I don't want to support cruelty to animals, whether it's forcing horses to race for our amusement or scalding chickens alive for our plate," Anderson said. "We have to be more evolved than this."
KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands, was recently named presenting sponsor of the Kentucky Derby. The company will put its logo beneath the famed twin spires at Churchill Downs, on a sign above the starting gate and on billboards around the track.
A Churchill Downs spokesman said that although he disagreed with Anderson, he regrets that she will not be coming back to the big race.
"We would certainly love to welcome her back somewhere down the road," John Asher said.
Last month, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher refused Anderson's request to have a bust of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders removed from the state Capitol. Fletcher cited Sanders as a state icon and KFC called Anderson's attack a misguided publicity stunt.
BETCRIS 
02-22-2006, 12:49 AM
Pamela Anderson to boycott Kentucky Derby... 
