Odd Stories: No nugget: Top Bidder for Commander in Chief Chicken Drops Out

By Nick Hytrek

Dakota City, Nebraska - George Washington didn't let the fact that many of his troops had no shoes on their feet stop him from attacking an enemy camp at Trenton, N.J.

Rebekah Speight isn't going to let a buyer's cold feet keep her from raising money to send kids to summer camp.

The owner of the now world-famous McDonald's McNugget bearing a resemblance to Washington remains optimistic about selling the frozen chicken chunk after the winner of an online auction backed out on the deal.

"They were very sorry," Speight said of the bidder, who had submitted the winning bid of $8,100 Monday on eBay.

Speight said eBay rules allow her to offer the McNugget to the second-highest bidder, who had bid $8,000.

Speight said she's been in contact with that bidder, but a deal might not be doable because the bidder lives overseas. Speight is concerned that she might not be able to ensure that the chicken will ship quickly enough to remain frozen.

If that deal falls through, Speight said, she can offer the nugget to the third-highest bidder, and so on. She has 60 days to decide what to do.

The Washington McNugget has taken on a life of its own, drawing interview requests from media in Germany and Canada. Speight said her goal remains to raise $15,000 to send 50 kids from the Family Worship Center in Sioux City to summer camp in Dayton, Iowa.

"I know the McNugget is fun, but it's really about the kids and getting them to camp," she said.

Speight, of Dakota City, noticed the nugget's resemblance to the first president when cleaning up her children's uneaten meals at a Sioux City McDonald's three years ago. It's been in her freezer since then.

McDonald's Drops Egg Suppliers Over Health Concerns

Chicago – McDonald's dropped an egg supplier after the Food and Drug Administration found it to have “filthy conditions and unacceptable rodent activity.” An animal rights group, Mercy for Animals, also exposed the inhumane treatment of the chickens.

After inspecting five egg facilities, in Iowa, Minnesota, and Colorado, the FDA issued a warning to Sparboe Farms saying there were “serious violations” of a law put into place to prevent the spread of salmonella.

McDonald's vice president, Bob Langert, released a statement today saying the choice to let go of Sparboe Farms was out of “concern regarding the management of Sparboe's facilities.” Mercy for Animals was also a factor in the decision after the group released a tri-state three-month-long investigation of its farms.

“Wired with a pin-hole camera,” Mercy for Animals executive director Nathan Runkle said, the worker “documented repeated cases of animal abuse and neglect.”

The video, posted here on Youtube and here on their site, shows dead and live chickens in the same enclosure, chicks with broken beaks, talk of workers abusing the animals, and live chickens being discarded with dead ones in plastic bags.