Three teenage boys – two 15 year olds and one 14-year old – were arrested Wednesday, Dec. 1 for strangling two hens, Linny and Maxine, at
El Monte Elementary School in Concord, California, in Contra Costa County on November 24, 2010.
“The two chickens were found dead in their coop, strangled with what police described as a type of cord or rope, the morning of Nov. 24 by a
school custodian. The intruders had broken through a lock and plywood securing the coop.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_16751845
Two days ago, UPC ran the story of what police called “random, spontaneous” killings when no suspects had yet been arrested.
http://www.upc-online.org/whatsnew/101201school_chicken_deaths.html
What Can I Do?
Please urge the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office to prosecute these three teenagers (names withheld by police so far due to
juvenile status) for cruelty to animals. Urge that they be charged, prosecuted and punished for their vicious and illegal conduct. Urge the DA’s
Office to show them and their community that breaking into a school and harming the innocent animals who are living there will not be tolerated.
According to CA Penal Code 597, a person is guilty of cruelty to animals if s/he “maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures or
wounds a living animal, or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal.”
Contact:
District Attorney Robert Kochly
Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office
Attention: Juvenile Division
900 Ward Street
Martinez, CA 94553
Phone: 925-957-2200
Fax: 925-957-2240
Email:
DA-Commentary-Feedback@contracostada.org
December 3, 2010
District Attorney Robert Kochly
Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office
Attention: Juvenile Division
900 Ward Street
Martinez, CA 94553
Email: DA-Commentary-Feedback@contracostada.org
Dear Mr. Kochly:
On behalf of United Poultry Concerns, I respectfully urge your office to prosecute the three teenage boys charged with strangling two chickens to death
at El Monte Elementary School on November 24, 2010. California Penal Code 597 states that a person is guilty of cruelty to animals if s/he
“maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures or wounds a living animal, or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal.”
According to police, these teenage boys (two 15 year olds and one 14 year old) were arrested on Wednesday, December 1 for breaking through a lock to
get to the six chickens who were being cared for by students and their teacher. Police describe the chickens (two 8-month-old hens named Linny and
Maxine) as having been strangled with a cord or rope.
It is important to the Concord community and to El Monte Elementary School and its students that these juvenile offenders be held criminally
responsible for their illegal conduct toward birds who did not belong to them and who were defenseless against their malicious and intentional attack.
What these boys did caused suffering not only to the chickens they killed, but to the other birds who had to watch and listen as their flock mates
suffered and died in the course of being strangled, and to the students, teachers, principal, and school custodian who found the chickens.
Please charge these three teenage boys with animal cruelty and prosecute them for their cruelty.
We appreciate your time and attention to this matter and look forward to your decision.
Sincerely,
Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
Phone: 757-678-7875
Fax: 757-678-5070
Email: Karen@upc-online.org
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl.
www.upc-online.org
