A ban on taking birds from pet stores to homes in El Paso County was lifted last week, said Dr. Michael Greenlee of the exotic Newcastle disease task force.
The rule began last month when the disease, which is deadly to poultry but not people, was detected April 10 in Socorro backyard flocks of game roosters, which were being raised for cockfighting. The rule was lifted after inspectors contacted stores. A quarantine preventing birds from leaving El Paso County is still in effect, Greenlee said.
More than 2,000 birds in El Paso County were destroyed to contain the disease.
Source: http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20030516-113892.shtml
The Animal Liberation Front posted the following message to an employee of Huntington Life Sciences, an animal testing laboratory, after dumping red paint on her car, puncturing three tires, and scrawling "HLS SCUM" across her garage door:
March 27, 2003 San Diego, California
A message to Claire:
You can install all of the motion sensor lights in the world and it won't make a difference. You've been marked. We've been watching you and Kevin following your trip overseas last April 19th. We've been in your house while (you were) in San Francisco. We've "bumped" into you at Costco. You've given us the time while in line at Bank of America. We've been watching your house. We've been watching you and your family. You've provided us with a wealth of information and amusement. But the fun can only last for so long. In consideration of Kevin being out of town so often, think of your family's security as your windows could be put through tomorrow night. We won't forget the animals you've helped murder at Huntingdon. Until you quit or until HLS closes, we're bringing your work home for you.
-A.L.F.
Source: http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/state/article/0,1375,VCS_122_1953870,00.html
(MOBILE, Ala.) May 14 - Travelers can now face fines and jail time for transporting illegal chickens across state lines thanks to a federal law aimed at cracking down on cockfighting.
It is a life of limited movement for the gamecocks on one Citronelle farm. If allowed to run free, their nature is to fight until only one is left standing. Now a federal law could restrict their travel on a much larger scale.
As of Wednesday, May 14, it is against the law to transport chickens from state to state for the purpose of fighting. Cockfigting is illegal in most states including Alabama. The law would keep people in those states from taking their roosters to Louisiana, Oklahoma and parts of New Mexico where it is still allowed.
The woman who owns the chickens in Citronelle does not want her face shown, but admits she fights them and sells them for others to fight. She thinks the new law is for the birds. "If I have a friend that lives in Mississippi and I want to take a chicken there and give it to them, all of a sudden that's illegal. I don't think that's right. What I want to do with something that is mine."
Jimmy Dunklin with the Mobile City Animal Shelter supports the law wholeheartedly, "It's very important to have laws like these because it helps us prevent cruelty to animals."
Lt. Bruce Lee with the Mobile County Sheriff's Office says the law sounds good, but he wonders who will enforce it and how will investigators prove their case. Lee told NBC 15 News, "You know unless you get a statement from the person transporting them, or you have some other information to go on, it's going to be real hard to determine. You know if you've got a rooster in a cage in the back of a truck, doesn't necessarily mean that you've got a fighting cock."
Because it is a misdemeanor in Alabama with a small fine, cockfighting is already hard to control. People are willing to break the law for what they believe is their right.
Source: http://www.wpmi.com/Global/story.asp?S=1278668&nav=3w5MFpCN
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is many things to many people. PETA's President, Ingrid Newkirk, calls her group "complete press sluts." After all, PETA did send out 10 press releases yesterday. Others might see PETA as an organization for the manifestly weird -- people who oppose seeing eye dogs and testing life-saving drugs on mice. But few consider PETA an organization dedicated to protecting the First Amendment or the rights of Native Americans. Yet we have before us the unusual spectacle of PETA declaring that its programs do exactly that.
In recent weeks, PETA has offered two amusing explanations for its support of arsonists like Rodney Coronado. "PETA will help when we feel it is appropriate to defend the rights of people who are trying to speak out in [sic] behalf of animals," notes PETA's general council, by way of defending the group's contributions to Coronado. "We stand very much behind the constitutional rights people have -- the right to Freedom of Speech." And the right to burn down research labs, it seems.
"PETA also paid to defend a Native American who broke into a college library to steal a tribal diary that had been looted from the tribe by Gen. George Custer," reports The New York Post. True, Rodney Coronado did that also. But one suspects that the $70,400 PETA gave him had something to do with his other activities.
PETA claims in its fundraising that "your donation will go to work instantly to help animals." A reasonable person might wonder how protecting the First Amendment, or Native American vestiges, or Rodney Coronado's hide, instantly helps animals. Perhaps PETA's biblical scholar in residence, the hapless Bruce Friedrich, might be able to squeeze water out of that rock. But we doubt it.
Which brings us to a recent Supreme Court decision ruling that the First Amendment does not protect nonprofit organizations (yes, you can write off your donations to the terrorist-supporting PETA, and the government may even match your contributions) from misleading the public about where their donations will go. According to The Washington Post: "States may maintain fraud actions when fundraisers make false or misleading representations designed to deceive donors about how their donations will be used."
The Supreme Court's case was limited to telemarketers making false claims about the proportion of donated funds that are devoted to program activities, so we're not holding our breath for a fraud case against PETA. But isn't there some enterprising lawyer out there who's willing to give it a try? After all, the Supreme Court also recently decided that cross burning is not protected by the First Amendment. Surely laboratory burning wouldn't receive First Amendment protection either.
Source: http://www.consumerfreedom.com/headline_detail.cfm?HEADLINE_ID=1923
----- Original Message -----From: <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 6:42 AMSubject: PRO/AH/EDR> Newcastle disease, poultry - Mexico (Michoacan):suspected
X-ProMED-Id: 20030515.1205
Sender: owner-promed-ahead-edr@promed.harvard.edu
Precedence: bulk
NEWCASTLE DISEASE, POULTRY - MEXICO (MICHOACAN):
SUSPECTED
***************************************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious
Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 08:15:08 +0100
From: "Pablo Nart" <p.nart@virgin.net>
Source: El Universal online (Mexico) Saltillo, Coahuila 14 Mai 2003
<http://www.el-
universal.com.mx/pls/impreso/version_imprimir?id_nota=142222
&tabla=notas> [in Spanish]
This is a report that 11 000 chickens have been culled because of
Newcastle disease & dumped in muncipal waste dumps in
Michoacan state. No evidence of laboratory confirmation was given.
Michoacan state stretches from west of Mexico City to the Pacific
coast; it is over 600km from the Texas, USA, border.
A full translation and comment from ProMED veterinary moderators
will follow as soon as possible. - Mod.JW
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[see also:
Newcastle disease, U.S. poultry ban extended - Mexico
20030127.0247
2000
----
Newcastle disease, poultry - Mexico: OIE report 20000419.0572
Newcastle disease, poultry - Mexico (Northern) 20000418.0558]
............................jw
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