PETA protest in Ocala
New eatery that features chicken finger meals targeted.
Bryan Wilson of PETA pours fake blood on the sidewalk to protest cruelty to chickens with other PETA members during the grand opening of Raising Cane’s on Southwest College Road in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. The grand opening of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers in Ocala was very popular and attended by dozens and dozens of people who came to see a ribbon cutting and also featured the “Lucky 20″ drawing where 20 people were chosen to receive free Cane’s for a year. PETA members, on the other hand, came with crime scene tape, sauce buckets brimming with fake blood, and yelling into handheld megaphones against the cruelty to chickens from the sidewalk area. PETA members said that chickens feel love, joy, pain and fear, just as humans do. A press release from PETA stated, ” Chickens are factory farmed, and have their throats cut, so anyone against cruelty to birds should leave them in peace, not pieces.” “PETA asks anyone thinking of eating chickens to ask themselves if they can feel good about themselves paying for outright cruelty and suffering, and turn right around, says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “If you buy, they die, and you are subsidizing cruelty to animals when it’s so easy to go vegan,” the press release also stated. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2026.
A PETA backed demonstration against what the organization sees as inhumane practices in growing and harvesting chickens for human consumption and a lack of plant-based menu options was held at the grand opening of the Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant on College Road on the morning of March 3.
The eatery features “ONE LOVE is craveable Chicken Finger meals,” according to raisingcanes.com
“It went really well. I think we got our message across,” said Shannon Blair, one of about six protestors at the location. The demonstration began around 8 a.m. and lasted until about 10 a.m., Blair said.
Blair said the demonstration included fake blood, yellow caution tape and signage with slogans like “causing pain” for chickens. Blair, 38, of Brevard County, works at a school but is also a “vegan and an animal liberator” and activist. She said the message of the protest was twofold: to shine a light on the PETA claim that “baby birds (chickens are) unnaturally” forced to grow large quickly and then harvested by what are described as cruel methods and, secondly, there is no plant-based vegan option on the menu.
Blair said she was the main megaphone speaker and other local People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) supporters were involved. She said a security guard confirmed the group stayed off Raising Cane’s property and that contacts with restaurant patrons were “positive.”
Blair said a passing truck discharged black smoke but otherwise she saw no pushback against the protest.
She said she has participated in protests at three or more other national chain restaurants which serve chicken.
PETA Media Campaign Manager Amanda Brody of West Palm Beach said the protest was held during a “celebration” of the opening of the Ocala restaurant which “neglects to mention the billions of chickens who are suffering on factory farms and being violently killed in slaughterhouses.”
Brody said Raising Cane’s was targeted in this and other protests due to their number of branches and rapid growth — the company opened 118 locations in 2024, according to its website — and its appeal to youthful customers. She said PETA backed protests have been held at other branded restaurants serving chicken.
Nicole Perreira, media relations coordinator with PETA, wrote in a press release that the protestors were “animal allies hellbent on making the point that chickens — who feel love, joy, pain and fear, just as humans do — are factory farmed and have their throats cut, so anyone against cruelty to birds should leave them in peace, not pieces.”
Meanwhile, Blair touted the health benefits of a vegan plant-based diet and compared the natural behavior and social activity of chickens to household pets, which “we wouldn’t eat.”
“One of our chants was “not just dogs not just cats. All animals want to live,” Blair stated in a text.
Blair noted the namesake of the restaurant is the founder’s dog, a Labrador retriever.
An email sent to Raising Cane’s public relations department was not immediately returned.
Support community journalism
The first goal of the Ocala Gazette is to deliver trustworthy local journalism so corruption, misinformation and abuse are not hidden from the public or unchallenged.
