James slammed by PETA for McDonald's praise

Officials at People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals have launched a furious broadside against rocker Alex James after he praised fast food outlets.

The Blur bassist, who also now runs a cheese farm, visited the production line of burger giant McDonald's and chicken takeaway chain KFC for an article in The Sun newspaper.

He admitted he was "dazzled" by the methods employed in a McDonald's kitchen and compared it to a Michelin-starred restaurant, adding, "When it's busy in a Michelin kitchen, all the chefs are doing is putting pre-prepared parts of a meal together, which is essentially the same as McDonald's... My day with McDonald's didn't put me off eating there at all."

But staff at animal rights organisation PETA are shocked by his remarks and have issued a statement slamming the star for promoting meat-based fast food.

It reads, "One wonders how much Alex was paid to sing the praises of greasy, cruelly obtained fast food and how much he will enjoy ending up having coronary bypass surgery if that's the kind of diet he actually eats.

"PETA's suggestion would have been to have Alex start his tour at the abattoir, where chickens... are hung upside down, have their throats cut and are bled to death, often while still conscious, and where pigs are sometimes scalded to death. Each and every one of these terrified individuals has the capacity to feel, just as we do. Or maybe Alex doesn't have that capacity himself?

"No amount of pay merits pushing a fast-food diet, heavy in animal products and conclusively linked to some of the U.K.'s biggest killers. Today's children are at risk of dying before their parents - victims of meat, dairy products and junk food, which clog their arteries and wreak havoc on their health. That's why the World Cancer Research Fund has recommended that parents not feed their children processed meat.

"With all the evidence of the devastating consequences of meat-based diets on our health, it takes a seriously irresponsible or uneducated parent to sing the praises of fast-food chains whose expanding profits depend on our expanding waistlines."