Animal Abuse at KSU

February 23, 2007

Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
(757) 678-7875. www.upc-online.org

Dr. Jon Wefald, President
Office of the President
Kansas State University
110 Anderson Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506

Via email: pres@k-state.edu

Dear Dr. Wefald:

I am writing to you via email and certified mail on behalf of United Poultry Concerns regarding an extremely cruel incident that was brought to our attention this past week involving at least three chickens – laying hens – on Monday, February 19th at the Bramlidge Coliseum at a basketball game. These birds were thrown onto the basketball court from the stands. A witness writes – and the images we’ve seen show – that they were alive when they were thrown onto the floor over a distance of approximately thirty feet. They were wounded, and they could not get up on their legs. One of the hens appears to have blood on her shoulder. It’s a pathetic sight.

The images show that these hens came from a caged laying hen operation. They are in the pathological state of hens who have been crammed for their entire lives in tiny wire cages in filthy buildings. They are suffering from the osteoporosis that results from living in a cage without exercise.  This is clear from the photographs and from the videotapes on youtube.com.

We take the sadistic treatment of helpless animals very seriously. We do not imply that your office was aware of what these students were planning. However, we do expect that you will act promptly to ensure that your students do not abuse any more animals at your school events.

In addition to writing to you, I am copying my letter to your Athletic Director, Tim Weiser, and to your Head Coach, Bob Huggins. We’re encouraging our members to contact you as well. We are posting our letter to you on our website, on the Internet.

I hope that you agree fully with us that abusing an animal for entertainment is not acceptable and that your office has a responsibility to ensure that your student body understands this, too. Your Associate Director of Operations, Jim Muller, assured me on the phone yesterday that KSU has a policy against bringing live animals into a sporting event facility and that the university will punish students who are identified with violations of this KSU policy, including pressing applicable criminal charges against such people.

If you are sincere about educating your students to be civilized and compassionate human beings, as I believe you are, one thing (among others)  that you need to do immediately, in your school’s written and spoken language, is to stop lumping living beings together with inanimate objects in the terms “item” and “object.” This is offensive, and it sends a message to your students and other campus members that a living individual with feelings is a thing, like a basketball. You need to rectify this crude lack of ethical discrimination in your university policy statements and in your administration’s spoken language.

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to hearing from you. Please let us know how you are handling this matter and how we may be of further help to you.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President
United Poultry Concerns
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