CRESTON
Tips that two fugitive parents might be hiding at an Ashe
County house led authorities to discover a large methamphetamine lab and
evidence that they say points to a cockfighting operation.
Sixty-eight game roosters and 34 game hens were seized by Ashe
County Animal Control, along with cockfighting paraphernalia that includes
sharpened spurs.
No one was home at the Baldwin Gap Road house.
Authorities aren't sure if there is any connection between the
house and the case of James Canter, 28, and Alisha Chambers, 18, who took their
two biological children at gunpoint from a Watauga County foster home Saturday
morning.
Authorities are still searching for 23-month old James Paul
Chambers and his sister, 11-month-old Breanna Genevieve Chambers, both subjects
of an Amber Alert.
One tip came in Saturday afternoon to the Ashe County
Sheriff's Office, with a caller saying that the couple could be at the home,
which is in Ashe County, minutes from Tennessee and near the Watauga County
community of Zionville.
Another tip, one of more than 50 received so far by the
Watauga County Sheriff's Office, was that James Chambers had been known to visit
the home, said Sheriff Mark Shook of Watauga County.
Sheriff's deputies from Ashe County, Watauga County and
Johnson County, Tenn., went to the house Saturday and said they found evidence
of a methamphetamine lab. But they couldn't go inside without a search
warrant.
Authorities guarded the area overnight while they waited for a
search warrant. During a shift change Sunday, a dog in a pack bit an Ashe County
deputy. The deputy was treated at Ashe Memorial Hospital in Jefferson and
released.
As officers with Ashe County Animal Control worked to capture
six adult dogs and 11 puppies, they came across numerous game hens tied by
straps around their legs to stakes in the ground, said Jeff Jones, Ashe's animal
control chief. The birds appeared neglected, with no food or water around.
Authorities got another search warrant to look for other
animals.
They found about 25 dead birds, and in a barn they found
dozens of game roosters and game hens.
"They were in obvious need of water and food so we're
providing that for them in a safe place now," Jones said. A judge will determine
the fate of the roosters and hens. They could be adopted out or placed with
people who have no interest in using them for cockfighting.
"It's not illegal to possess game roosters or hens," Jones
said. "It's just illegal to fight. It's also illegal to not provide them food
and water."
Jones will meet today with investigators. Charges are pending,
including animal cruelty charges.
Sheriff Jim Hartley of Ashe County said that the home looked
as if someone had left hurriedly. The television was on, as were the lights. The
doors were locked.
Cameras outside fed into a monitor inside the home, allowing
residents to see and hear anyone approaching the house and the meth lab, Hartley
said.
The meth lab was in a storage area of a detached garage
building, he said. Authorities have not been able to talk to the people who own
the home.
Hartley said that there was no obvious connection between the
homeowners and the fugitive couple.
Authorities had raided Canter's and Chambers' home off N.C. 88
in the northern part of Watauga County on March 6, and found a meth lab.
Chambers was arrested, and the children were taken into protective custody.
Canter wasn't home and a warrant was drawn for his arrest. She was in jail about
two months before posting bond.
The Watauga County Sheriff's Office has been looking for
Canter ever since the raid.
"We're still looking" for the children, Shook said yesterday.
"We're following every lead, working with the FBI."
The case is drawing national attention. Shook was on CNN last
night, and the CBS Morning Show had just called as well yesterday. He said that
his department is working nonstop on the case, and he has hardly slept.
"It's worth it when we get the kids back," he said.
• Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at (336)
667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com
Source: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780325050
Australian woolgrowers join court action against
PETA
A push to gain support for Australian Wool Innovation's court action against
PETA has enlisted a wool exporter and 72 growers from across the
country.
They've signed up to be part of the legal action, being
taken against the animal rights group in the Sydney Federal Court.
Amy
Bainbridge has more.
"AWI launched the action last year, following a
public campaign by PETA that pressured major US retailer Abercrombie and Fitch
to boycott Australian wool.
"AWI is hoping to use a section of the Trade
Practices Act to stop PETA from targeting other retailers, and also wants the
animal rights group to publish corrective advertising to counteract what it says
is inaccurate material about mulesing, released in the US.
"AWI says
it's confident more growers and exporters will join the action.
"It says
so far there have been 300 expressions of interest and it will still accept
additional applicants. On February 11, the Federal Court will decide if it
accepts the additional applicants."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/stories/s1284738.htm
Another retailer joins mulesing
campaign
A powerful animal rights group has stepped up its fight
against what it says is a cruel practice by Australian sheep farmers, claiming
another major retailer has joined the campaign.
Under pressure from the United States-based People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), British clothing company George has agreed
not to buy Australian wool from producers who use mulesing on sheep, according
to a statement from both groups.
<snip>
Source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/050119/2/snkd.html
Is This What We Might
Expect To See In This Country If We Are Soft On Animal Rights Terrorism And
Crime?
| U.K. Animal
Rights Activists Scare Away Suppliers, Group Says
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The number of companies that have stopped
supplying services to U.K. organizations involved in animal research
because of intimidation by animal rights activists is rising, a drug
industry group said.
Some 42 of the 113 suppliers that cut ties in 2004 with drug companies
and others that use animals in research reported doing so in the last
quarter of the year compared with 26 in the third quarter, the Association
of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said today in an e-mailed
statement. Comparable figures for 2003 are not available, the ABPI said.
Some companies that provide services or supplies to drugmakers or
laboratories are distancing themselves from animal researchers as some
activists step up harassment campaigns, the ABPI said. The number of
threatening phone calls made to companies in 2004 nearly tripled to 108
from 38 in 2003, ABPI figures show. Reports of damage to company, personal
or public property rose to 177 from 146.
``Increasingly companies are getting more and more concerned about this
continuing problem,'' Richard Ley, a spokesman for ABPI, said in a
telephone interview. ``It's increasingly something which companies are
taking into account when they think about where in the world to place
their research and development work.''
Companies that have stopped providing services to animal researchers
range from banks and insurers to companies that sell laboratory supplies
or provide building maintenance, Ley said.
`Frustrated'
``People have become frustrated by the lack of movement in the industry
to address lack of non-animal testing methodologies,'' Andrew Butler, a
spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a
telephone interview. ``There are organizations that have taken it upon
themselves to take action and have been extremely successful.'' Butler
said PETA works through public education instead.
``We uncover abuse and alert the media to it,'' he said.
New laws and increased police enforcement have helped reduce the number
of incidents of activists who harass company employees and protest outside
their homes, to 89 from 146 in 2003, the ABPI said. Also, the total number
of demonstrators who took to the streets in 2004 to protest against animal
testing declined to 10,922 from 11,396 according to the industry group's
figures. |
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Zimm in London at
at azimm@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor of this story: Mark Rohner at
4106 or mrohner@bloomberg.net |
From The
Phillipine Sun Star Comes......
Davao City and Manado City,
Indonesia
.......Cockfighting will soon be
legalized in Manado.........
Jags-CT to explore links with
Indonesia
By Jenny
Molbog-Mendoza
IN
a bid to explore possible business opportunities in Indonesia, the mayors of
Jose Abad-Santos, Glan, and Sarangani left Davao City Monday to embark on
exploratory mission in the said country.
Mayors Alexander Wangkay of
Jose Abad-Santos, Enrique Yap of Glan, and Jerry Cawa of Sarangani revealed that
they would like to establish direct communication and trading linkages with
their counterparts in Indonesia.
The mayors are promoting their
respective municipalities under the banner organization, Jose Abad-Santos, Glan,
and Sarangani-Cooperation Triangle (Jags-CT), conceived as the mini-Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (Bimp-Eaga) of Mindanao.
"We really would like to know what products are in demand in Indonesia
para hindi naman palaging sila na lang ang benta nang benta sa atin," Yap said.
Among the products the group will promote in their trade mission are:
television sets which are assembled here in Davao City; cows and goats since
there's an existing shortage of these products there; chili pepper (siling
labuyo), one major ingredient that Indonesians could not do without, and
fighting cocks.
Cockfighting will soon be legalized in Manado.
The exploratory mission is also aimed at discussing possible areas of
cooperation that can be jointly undertaken by Jags-CT and Indonesia; encouraging
investors and tourists to invest and visit Jags-CT, and harmonizing rules and
regulations affecting the movement of goods, people and services between the two
areas.
The exploratory mission will end on January 24.
Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dav/2005/01/18/bus/jags.ct.to.explore.links.with.indonesia.html