'Most people know chickens only as nuggets, wings, or fillets, yet these remarkable birds are intelligent,' campaigners claimed

Animal rights campaigners have demanded a former KFC is turned into the world's first "chicken empathy museum".

The ex-KFC on Lord Street in Fleetwood, Lancashire, has been put up for sale.

Campaign group Peta has now written to Landwood Property Auctions to "borrow" the site or have it be "donated for educational purposes".

Dawn Carr, the organisation's vice president of vegan projects, said she was writing on behalf of 1.2 million Peta activists.

She said: "Such an attraction would turn a building once associated with selling the parts of dead chickens into one that celebrates the hearts of alive ones.

"Most people know chickens only as 'nuggets', 'wings', or 'fillets', yet these remarkable birds are intelligent, inquisitive individuals with their own unique personalities."

Local Labour councillor Mary Belshaw said it was a "novel idea".

She told the BBC she would rather have the "museum" than "another large empty property on our high street".

"Who knows? It could become a huge attraction for the town," she added.

Ms Carr claimed chickens can perform basic arithmetic and communicate through a "a sophisticated range of vocalisations".

Visitors at the proposed museum could learn about "chickens' intelligence and emotional lives", she added.

Also on display would be "Peta's famous chicken mascot", vegan meals, and "equipment used to mutilate and kill birds".

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"What better use for a former fried-chicken restaurant than a place dedicated to understanding - and respecting - the birds who have long paid the ultimate price for fast food?" the letter concluded.

Landwood Property Auctions has not publicly responded to the letter.

Peta said that in terms of feeling pain and hunger, chickens, dogs and humans are all the same.

But the "museum" stunt is far from their only attempt to make their mark on the high street.

Peta tried to have a new road in pork pie hotspot Melton Mowbray "Vegan Pie Way", sparking a row with the local Reform-run council.

Council leader Dan Harrison said the suggestions were "farcical" and "ridiculous", telling GB News: "This suggestion is nothing more than pie in the sky thinking – we won’t be considering it."

The group clashed with his party leader Nigel Farage last year when he was given a bulldog temporary tattoo on April Fools' Day.

Founder Ingrid Newkirk wrote to Mr Farage warning that bulldogs suffer from a range of breathing difficulties - and told the Brexit heavyweight to steer clear of using the British icon animal in his campaigns in the future.