.........."We're not going to cut their heads off or anything," he said........
Of all the tenants at the Union County animal shelter, there are 59 Lorey White would love to evict.
But, at least for now, the county's health director is stuck with the roosters confiscated from a Mineral Springs barn. They are evidence in an on-going sheriff's investigation into cockfighting.
Deputies picked up the birds and 50 men at a home off Potter Road two weeks ago. The men were charged with watching cockfights, a misdemeanor. The homeowner, Juan Castillo Moran, was charged with fighting gamecocks, a misdemeanor.
While those cases work their way through the legal system, the roosters must be kept at the shelter -- in a confined area that is becoming increasingly foul.
"Our people can't even get into the cages to clean them because they're such wild things," White said. "We're just feeding them and giving them water."
No decision has been made about what will happen to the birds once the investigation is over, Sheriff Eddie Cathey said. But he believes the roosters -- valued between $1,000 and $3,000 apiece -- will get suitable homes. The department is looking for appropriate animal rescue operations.
"We're not going to cut their heads off or anything," he said.
Human Society of Union County President Cindy Poppino said no one has contacted her group about dealing with the birds. But the Society would work to find them some kind of accommodations if necessary, she said.
It wouldn't be the first time the Humane Society has dealt with animals involved in criminal investigations. In 2003, Society members found homes for more than 200 dogs seized from a southeastern Union dog breeder.
Deputies, animal control officers and Society members took the dogs from Delores Perez's 35-acre property in April 2003. Officials said the now 79-year-old ran a "puppy mill," breeding and selling dogs at high volume in squalid conditions.
"A lot of them who either medically or emotionally could not be placed stay with their foster families," Poppino said of the dogs. "All in all, I'd say the majority of them were able to be rehabilitated and placed in new homes."
A Texas
philosopher who compared the Animal Liberation Front to abolitionists triggered
a fervent debate over the November 2004 attack on Spence Labs on Thursday, his
remarks so inflaming that they left his audience gasping and
whispering.
Steven Best, an associate professor at the University of
Texas-El Paso, said that the group's attacks struck at the "heart" of the labs
by causing destruction and releasing caged animals.
"They were not
stealing, because the researchers didn't own the animals in the first place," he
said. The front "righted a wrong - freed them."
Demanding the "total
pursuit of animal emancipation," he praised the front's actions and compared the
freeing of animals to the Boston Tea Party and the Underground Railroad. Best
said no progress can come about without a large movement, even if it means
violence, but called death threats toward researchers "problematic." He
contended that the Animal Liberation Front was not violent.
"The
animal-rights movement is growing whether you like it or not - it's
unstoppable," he said in his opening remarks at the IMU. His lecture, "The New
Abolitionism: Civil Rights, Animal Liberation, and Moral Progress," drew an
audience of more than 100 as part of the UI Martin Luther King Human Rights
Week.
"Real violence is what people do to animals," he said,
acknowledging that his definition differs from King's. "Violence is not always
right - yet it's not always wrong, either."
His statements generated a
flurry of questions and criticism from the audience, which was made up of
doctors, psychology students, animal-rights activists, and medical students. "If
you saw a baby dying and a dog dying, which would you save?" one audience member
asked.
"You need to be more specific with your question," Best replied.
If a house with his dog and someone he didn't know was burning, he said he would
save his dog, prompting another wave of gasps.
Leana Stormont, the
president of the Iowa Law Student Animal Defense Fund, whose group sponsored the
lecture with another animal-liberation advocacy organization, said the lecture
stimulated an important debate.
"We needed to have a conversation to take
into account what happened at the Spence Labs," she said. "... It was almost
impossible to have a conversation after the break-in in November without anyone
being branded who spoke out [in favor of the Animal Liberation Front]. There is
nothing extreme about being kind and decent toward animals."
E-mail DI
reporter Julie Zare at:
julie-zare@uiowa.edu
Source: http://www.dailyiowan.com/news/2005/01/21/Metro/AnimalRights.Speaker.Provokes.Disbelief-837676.shtml
For More Information Visit Gamefowl News
Does This Sound Like Something PETA Would Do?
The HSUS Appeals to Filmmakers at Sundance for Support on N.M. Cockfighting Ban
WASHINGTON – As New Mexico pumps millions of tax dollars into economic development and workforce training in an effort to bolster the state's growing film industry, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is running advertisements appealing to independent film industry executives to consider staying out of New Mexico as long as cockfighting is legal.
<snip>
A SAOVA message to sportsmen, pet owners
and farmers concerned about protecting their traditions, avocations and
livelihoods from anti-hunting, anti-breeding, animal guardianship advocates.
Forwarding and cross posting, with attribution,
encouraged.
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