UPC Spring/Summer 2004 Poultry Press
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Spring Summer 2004 Volume 14, Number 1 PoultryPromoting the compassionate and respectful Press treatment of domestic fowl The Wood-Chipper Episode and Avian Flu Epidemics: What’s The Connection? "United Poultry Concerns is Cutler did not act alone but was part demanding my expulsion from the of a team of veterinarians, poultry produc- AVMA Animal Welfare Committee posi- ers, and government officials that recom- tion. Their own Web site demonstrates mended the procedure in a written guide- how they are advancing their line for dealing with avian influenza agenda by attempting outbreaks. It included the to connect this disposal of live atrocity to "spent hens" in AVMA's wood chip- position pers - "A on large induced chipper molt- can be ing. I rented am and set nothing up to dis- more than charge a poster directly into a child under loader bucket or attack." Photo By: AP other container. "Cutler speaks Death is instant and out on his own behalf," In Indonesia, chickens are burned alive to humane." destroy avian influenza United Poultry DVM Newsmagazine, UPC targeted Cutler Concerns January 2004 because, in addition to authorizing the P.O. Box 150 he January issues of Veterinary wood-chipper killings, he represents poul- Machipongo, VA Practice News and DVM try on the AVMA's animal welfare com- 23405-0150 Newsmagazine stress the leader- mittee, where he supports inhumane prac- (757) 678-7875 T ship of United Poultry Concerns in tices such as forced molting. He epito- FAX: (757) 678-5070 demanding the removal of Dr. Gregg mizes what is wrong with the AVMA, Visit Our Web Site: Cutler from the animal welfare committee which, instead of leading the effort to www.upc-online.org of the American Veterinary Medical improve the lives of chickens and other Association (AVMA). Cutler authorized farmed animals, blocks every effort to the Ward egg ranch, in California, to improve their lives, while calling itself, throw tens of thousands of unwanted live ironically, "the leading voice for humane hens into wood-chipping machinery last and proper care of animals." February. In January 2004, the AVMA claimed continued on page 2 UNITED POULTRY CONCERNS WWW.UPC-ONLINE.ORG Volume 14, Number 1 continued from page 1 to be gathering facts for a judicial hearing to decide if Animal People says that it is "increasingly common Cutler "breached ethical standards and the for spent hens to be killed by live maceration, long Veterinarian's Oath" in authorizing the wood-chippers. the standard means of killing surplus chicks. The In addition, the California Veterinary Medical Board is remains are fed to pigs, cattle, or other chickens." investigating Cutler's role, which could cost him his "A macerator is just a fancy name for some- license to practice veterinary medicine in California. thing that crushes and kills baby chickens. It is ugly and inhumane," veterinarian Peggy Larson told The Bigger Picture Animal People. And while the AVMA's 2000 Report on Euthanasia doesn't say so, Animal People reports If instead of wood chippers, Cutler had merely that live maceration is among the "generally approved advised the Ward egg ranch to use any of the standard and recommended methods of killing both spent hens AVMA-approved methods of killing the birds, like and surplus chicks, according to guidelines posted by breaking and stretching their necks and/or asphyxiating the South Dakota State University Department of them with carbon dioxide - inhumane methods despite Animal and Range Sciences." Likewise, the University AVMA approval - the episode would not have sparked of California, Davis Center for Animal Welfare a San Diego County Department of Animal Services approves grinders "specifically designed for disposal of cruelty investigation including a complaint to the poultry" noting that they "must not be overloaded, as California Veterinary Medical Board. Yet even though birds may be incompletely macerated under these con- the AVMA has not formally approved the use of wood- ditions." chippers as a form of euthanasia ("merciful death"), wood chippers and other types of grinding machines, Mass-Extermination of Birds called macerators, are being used to kill birds. Ward egg ranch manager Ken Iryie told the San In addition to the global slaughter of over 40 Diego County Department of Animal Services that billion chickens exploited for food each year, tens of "chipping" chickens is a common practice. It isn't millions of birds are exterminated to dispose of those just a "disease-control emergency" procedure, but a who are unwanted (like male chicks born to the egg way to dispose of the 22 million to 25 million spent industry) and no longer wanted (like "spent" hens in hens in the US each year not purchased by the govern- the egg industry), and to control the diseases that ment for its National School Lunch Program and other spread in captive flocks. For example, between 1971 meal programs. In addition to being packed in con- and 1973, California killed 12 million chickens to stop tainers, bulldozed, suffocated to death in dumpsters, the spread of Newcastle disease, a type of avian influen- and gassed with CO2, the March 2004 issue of za. In 1997, Hong Kong killed 1.4 million chickens to continued on page 4 PoultryPress UNITED POULTRY CONCERNS, INC. is published quarterly by OFFICERS: WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR: CONSULTANTS & INTERNET United Poultry Concerns, Inc., KAREN DAVIS, PhD, GARY KAPLAN RESEARCHERS: a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization President-Director GRAPHIC DESIGNER: MARY FINELLI incorporated GEORGE ALLAN CATE, PhD, PATTRICE JONES in the State of Maryland. Vice President-Director GARY KAPLAN ANCTUARY SSISTANTS Federal I.D.: 52-1705678 OFFICE MANAGER: S A : JOAN MEANOR SUSAN RAYFIELD CAROL BAKER EDITOR: HOLTGRAVER, MA, CINDY RODRIGUEZ Karen Davis Secretary Treasurer-Director GRAPHIC DESIGN: Gary Kaplan/ GK Graphic Designs ADVISORS: Carol J. Adams, Author Ingrid Newkirk, PETA Deborah Tanzer, PhD, WEBSITE ADMINISTRATOR: Nedim C. Buyukmihci, VMD Sheila Schwartz, PhD, Humane Psychologist Gary Kaplan/ GK Graphic Designs Sean Day, Attorney Education Committee of NYC In Memoriam: Henry Spira, Jim Mason, Author Kim Sturla, Animal Place Animal Rights International United Poultry Concerns • (757) 678-7875 2 P.O. Box 150 • Machipongo, VA 23405-0150 UNITED POULTRY CONCERNS FIFTH ANNUAL FORUM 2004 Saturday, August 21 – Sunday August 22, 2004 Mad Cows to Mad Chickens: What Insiders Can Tell You About Agribusiness, Animal Liberation, and Your Diet Meet the eyewitnesses and hear their testimony from “behind the scenes” of the meat, poultry, egg, dairy, medical, and “alternative” animal production industries. Including special guest Virgil Butler Hilton Airport Norfolk Hotel Lester Friedlander, DVM, former chief veteri- Norfolk, VA 23502 nary USDA Meat Inspector. Toll Free: 800-422-7474 Michael Greger, M.D., Mad Cow Coordinator Vegan Luncheons and morning coffee service pro- for the Organic Consumers Association. vided. Pattrice Jones, co-director of the Eastern Shore Registration: $75 per person. Students & seniors: Sanctuary & Education Center. $40. Jim Mason, co-author of Animal Factories and Speakers: author of An Unnatural Order. Sarahjane Blum, Foie Gras investigator, Paul Shapiro, campaigns director for Compassion GourmetCruelty.com. Over Killing. ___________________________________________ Virgil Butler, former Tyson chicken slaughter- house worker in Grannis, Arkansas. Register Now! Bring a Friend! Send check or money order to: Terry Cummings, codirector of Poplar Spring Farm Animal Sanctuary. United Poultry Concerns, Inc. PO Box 150 Cheri Ezell-Vandersluis, former dairy cow Machipongo, VA 23405-0150 farmer. 757-678-7875 FAX: 757-678-5070 Mary Finelli, editor of Farmed Animal Watch. www.upc-online.org UNITED POULTRY CONCERNS WWW.UPC-ONLINE.ORG Volume 14, Number 1 continued from page 2 control a strain of avian influenza that infected and Agriculture task force. This operation was supervised by killed humans and birds (repeated unsuccessfully in Drs. Hortentia Harris and David Henzler of USDA- 2001 and 2002). Between 1997 and 2000 Italy killed APHIS [Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service] and 13 million birds in an attempt to control avian influen- Drs. Archibald Park and Henry Virts of the Maryland za; and in 2002, Virginia killed 4.7 million turkeys and Department of Agriculture. chickens to halt a mild form of the virus. These exter- "Approximately half of the game birds (17,000) minations are paid for by taxpayers. For example, the were housed in buildings. The remaining birds were extermination of over 3 million birds to block the housed in outside flight pens. On Friday, November 26, Exotic Newcastle disease epidemic that threatened large tank trucks brought in carbon dioxide gas (CO2) California's poultry and egg industry last year cost US which was pumped into the buildings which housed a taxpayers more than $160 million including indemni- variety of game bird species some of which were sus- ties to cockfighters. The 2002 avian flu epidemic in pected of harboring a pathogenic avian influenza virus. Virginia cost taxpayers $135 million to $150 million. The plan was to asphyxiate the birds with the CO2 gas, Such crises are now taking place around the then carry them to a trench in a front end loader where world, from Delaware to Indonesia. To protect the glob- they would be sprayed with an accelerant and burned. al animal food industry and save people from the avian "Unfortunately, we learned that CO2 is not lethal. influenza epidemics brought on by humans (the 1918 As soon as the unconscious birds were exposed to fresh bird-human flu pandemic killed 20 million people), air they began to revive. Many of these birds were millions of chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigs, and other burned alive. A fruitless attempt was made to asphyxiate animals are being buried alive, gassed, drowned, beaten the remaining birds with exhaust gasses from an auto- to death, and burned to death.