Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson
February 19, 2013
District Attorney Charles Branson
Douglas County District Attorney’s Office
111 E. 11th St, Unit 100
Lawrence, KS 66044--2912
Districtattorney@douglas-county.com
Dear Mr. Branson:
I am respectfully writing to inquire about the status of your criminal investigation into the turkey abuse episode reported by eyewitnesses at The
University of Kansas Beta Theta Pi fraternity house drinking party on Friday evening, December 14, 2012.
On December 20, 2012, I wrote to you urging a thorough criminal investigation.
Your Office replied: “The Lawrence Police Department is conducting the investigation of the incident and it is estimated that it will take
several weeks to complete. Therefore, as of this date, no facts about the situation have been presented to our office. We cannot speculate on what
level of charges, if any, will be filed until we receive law enforcement’s investigative reports.
“We take any allegation of animal abuse seriously and will pursue any charge we believe is supported by the facts of the case and I will
relay your concerns to the District Attorney so he will be aware of them when the reports are reviewed.”
Please advise me where your investigation now stands and whether you will prosecute the individuals who were observed abusing and killing the
turkey who was brought to the drinking party, indicating a clear intention of putting the bird in a potentially dangerous and defenseless situation
of abuse, as turned out to be the case. We look to your office to uphold the Kansas Cruelty to Animals Statute in this matter.
Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
Karen@upc-online.org
Justin Warren, Director of Chapter Operations, Beta Theta Pi Foundation
February 18, 2013
Justin Warren, Director of Chapter Operations
Beta Theta Pi Foundation & Administrative Office
5134 Bonham Road, PO Box 6277
Oxford, Ohio 45056
Justin.Warren@betathetapi.org
Dear Justin,
As you may recall, I wrote to you on December 20, 2012 and you kindly and quickly responded to my letter with reassurances.
I am writing to you now for an update on the status of your investigation and further actions regarding the turkey abuse episode that took place on
December 14, 2012 at the Beta Theta Pi chapter’s drinking party at The University of Kansas in Lawrence. In my letter to you, I urged the
Beta Theta Pi General Fraternity to fully investigate the savage attack on the turkey who was brought to the party in a cage and subsequently and
intentionally tortured for fun as described to me in phone interviews with Grand Marquis band leader Lisa McKenzie who further relayed band member
Chad Boydston’s eyewitness account of a fraternity member’s sadistic killing of this bird on the front porch of the fraternity house.
It had nothing to do with “ending the bird’s suffering” but of squeezing every last bit of agony out of his victim. The image of
what these horrible fraternity men did to this helpless bird and how she suffered will never leave my mind.
In my letter, I urged the General Fraternity to adopt and implement a Fraternity Code of Ethical Conduct prohibiting the presence of nonhuman
animals, be they birds, mammals or any other type of creature vulnerable to abuse by fraternity members and their associates, at all Beta Theta Pi
functions. Violators of the Fraternity Code of Ethical Conduct should be expelled from the fraternity and punished as fully as possible, including
expulsion of the entire chapter.
Please advise me of the steps you have taken, thus far, to insure that acts of sadistic brutality do not recur at any Beta Theta Pi chapter events.
We have alerted our members about the deliberate animal cruelty that was done by members of Beta Theta Pi on December 14 and urged them to contact
you. Here is the link to our Alert in the Winter-Spring 2013 issue of our quarterly magazine Poultry Press, in print and online:
http://www.upc-online.org/pp/spring2013/beta_theta_pi.html.
Thank you for addressing this matter with the utmost seriousness, not simply as a public relations problem to be smoothed over, but, first and
foremost, as an issue of ethical conduct, compassionate attitudes and consequence that affects all of us. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
Karen@upc-online.org
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, The University of Kansas
February 18, 2013
Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little
Chancellor’s Office
The University of Kansas
230 Strong Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045-7518
Chancellor@ku.edu
Dear Dr. Gray-Little:
On January 3, 2013 I wrote to you about the turkey abuse episode that took place on December 14, 2012 at the Beta Theta Pi chapter drinking party
at The University of Kansas. Your office indicated encouragingly that you are taking this animal cruelty episode on your campus seriously, which I
was pleased to hear.
In my letter, I urged you to adopt and implement a University Code of Ethical Conduct for all campus residents including students, faculty, and
other staff showing the leadership that is needed to prevent animal cruelty from recurring at The University of Kansas. The email correspondence of
your Associate Dean of the School of Education, Jim Lichtenberg, in which he joked about the suffering and abuse of the turkey, showed depravity
and heartlessness in a faculty member as well as in the students. What concrete steps are you taking to upgrade the mentality and behavior of your
campus residents?
What your students did to this helpless bird and how she suffered will never leave my mind.
Please advise me of the steps you have taken thus far, and what you will further do, to insure that acts of sadistic cruelty do not recur at any
future University of Kansas events. We have alerted our members about the deliberate animal cruelty that was done by members of the campus chapter
of Beta Theta Pi on December 14 and urged them to contact you. Here is the link to our Alert in the Winter-Spring 2013 issue of our quarterly
magazine Poultry Press, in print and online: http://www.upc-online.org/pp/spring2013/beta_theta_pi.html.
Thank you for addressing this matter with the utmost seriousness, not simply as a public relations problem to be smoothed over, but, first and
foremost, as an issue of ethical conduct, compassionate attitudes and consequence that affects all of us. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
Karen@upc-online.org
