[UPDATE via CNN:]
JACKSON, Miss. – The outrage came hard and fast after a 3-year-old girl badly scarred and wearing an eye patch because of a pit bull attack was apparently asked to leave a KFC restaurant.
Allegedly a restaurant employee said the girl’s appearance upset other customers.
Social media users opened fire on the restaurant, calling for a boycott, and the company’s apology came soon after.
The company said it will donate $30,000 to assist with the girl’s medical bills.
“The entire KFC family is behind Victoria,” company spokesman Rick Maynard said.
[Original Story]
JACKSON, Miss. — A 3-year-old girl reportedly cried all the way home after her family was told they had to leave because the child’s scarred face was scaring other customers at a KFC in Jackson, Mississippi; the young girl suffered the injuries in a dog attack that occurred recently.
WAPT 16 News reports the 3-year-old girl is recovering after she was dragged and mauled by two dogs in her grandfather’s backyard.
The girl’s grandmother, Kelly Mullins, told WAPT that Victoria Wilcher was still using a feeding tube, so they stopped at KFC for mashed potatoes, thinking she could simply swallow the mushy meal. But Mullins said they were approached.
“They just told us, they said, ‘We have to ask you to leave because her face is disrupting our customers.’ (Victoria) understood exactly what they said,” Mullins told WAPT News.
Mullins also said her young granddaughter is embarrassed about her looks and doesn’t want to get out of the car when they go to stores. Mullins said Victoria cried the whole way home from KFC that day.
“No matter what’s wrong with a person, if a person’s different, if a person’s scarred, or is a different color or anything, people shouldn’t be discriminated against,” Mullins told WAPT News. “Her being 3 years old and already being discriminated against, it makes me mad, because I know for the rest of her life it’s going to be like that.”
KFC officials replied to WAPT News in an email, and officials with the restaurant are reportedly investigating the incident and are “committed to doing something appropriate for this beautiful little girl and her family.” The company also posted an apology on social media in response to online comments.
The story garnered attention online, and on a Facebook page previously set up to document the girl’s recovery someone posted Saturday they stand in “absolute amazement” after the page’s likes went from about 250 to almost 14,000 as of Saturday afternoon.
Click here for more on KFC’s response and more comments from the girl’s grandmother.
