Special Report

Report on Exotic Newcastle Disease (END) and the Mass Killing of Birds

In January, California Gov. Gray Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared a state of emergency to protect California's $3 billion poultry and egg industry from exotic Newcastle disease (END), a contagious virus that affects the respiratory, nervous and digestive systems of birds and, while said to be harmless to humans, "can cause pink eye in rare circumstances," according to Pima County, Arizona Sheriff's Detective Mike Duffey.

In February, UPC President Karen Davis joined a meeting of animal protection groups, concerned citizens, journalists, and government officials in Los Angeles to discuss the handling of the situation. Hosted by attorney William Dailey, and Cherylynn Costner of the Hillary Chicken Memorial Fund, the meeting also included representatives of The Fund For Animals, the Humane Farming Association, The Humane Society of the United States, Last Chance for Animals, the Parrot Society of Los Angeles, Mike and Sue Swallow, and others.

On March 24, 2003, attorney William H. Dailey filed a Petition with the Superior Court of California on behalf of 13 bird owners, the Hillary Chicken Memorial Fund and the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, urging the court to order Gov. Davis to rescind his emergency order calling for the eradication of exotic Newcastle disease through the "expeditious disposal of poultry" and to order Davis and government agencies to establish due-process protections that prevent authorities from arbitrarily slaughtering companion or show birds. "We're asking the court to tell the government to do things differently and to obey the constitution," Dailey said. "Over 3 million birds were slaughtered to date just in California and most of them weren't infected." Dailey's motion accuses Gov. Davis and the CA task force of "repeated abuses of constitutional rights and cruelty toward citizens and violations of animal anti-cruelty statutes."

To read the Petition go to http://www.upc-online.org/poultry_diseases/
For updates call Cherylynn Costner, Hillary Chicken Memorial Fund: 877-452-4425.

"Men in white suits come to your door to kill your precious birds." - Sue Swallow

So far the USDA and CA Dept of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have killed more than 3 1/2 million birds at a cost to taxpayers in excess of $40 million, including $12.8 million paid in indemnities to bird owners (Scripps Howard, 4/1/03). Chickens, parrots, ducks, geese, pigeons, turkeys, emus, peafowl, and other birds were, and are now being, killed, the majority showing no sign of the disease. If one bird tests positive in a flock consisting of one bird or a million birds, all of the birds are destroyed.

California resident Sue Swallow describes the treatment of companion birds: "A vet shows up with a bunch of low paid thugs and prison labor. In full view of a family, including the children, they catch the birds they can catch, tape their legs together, put each one in a plastic bag, and gas them with carbon dioxide. The ones they can't catch they shoot with pellet guns until they are dead. Geese and emus they bludgeon to death with clubs."

The Cockfighting Connection

Though cockfighting has been illegal in California since 1905 - as is raising roosters for fighting, participating in or attending a cockfight and possessing fighting paraphernalia -there are at least 3 million game birds in the state and 50,000 - 60,000 owners (Poultry Times, 2/17/03). A county detective explains, "These guys have two to 400 roosters, on the pretext of raising show birds. They're tied to stakes, in the open, and go through a training regimen to make them fighters" (Modesto Bee, 2/9/03). Cockfighters bring birds up from Mexico and move them from state to state despite federal quarantines. They work on poultry and egg farms, tracking the disease into chicken houses.

Despite the illegality of cockfighting in California and 47 other states, USDA is compensating cockfighters whose birds are destroyed under the END eradication program, as high as $1,850 per bird (The Californian, 3/15/03). This compensation supports cockfighting and encourages cockfighters to "find" END, kill their birds, and introduce new birds in order to get paid. California resident Mike Swallow told UPC (3/13/03), "They hide 5 or 6 dead birds and after depopulation sell those dead birds to other cockfighters to infect their birds and get the big payoff."

The Poultry and Egg Industry: Culpability and Reward

In addition to END's being transmitted through infected birds' droppings and secretions from the nose, mouth, and eyes, a USDA Fact Sheet (1/6/03) explains that the disease "is often spread by vaccination and debeaking crews, manure haulers, rendering truck drivers, feed delivery personnel, poultry buyers, egg service people, and poultry farm owners and employees." And while the mass killing of birds to eradicate END is being done to protect the poultry and egg industry, there is another side to the slaughter, exemplified by the egg rancher who killed 100,000 of his hens, not because they had END but because they were "spent." Since he couldn't truck them to slaughter due to the quarantine in his area, he was reimbursed for every hen "pouring over the side of the truck," whereupon he told the Los Angeles Daily News (2/15/03), "For a guy who's been losing money for three years this could be the first sizable check in a long time."

That's because the state is paying egg companies $2 to $5 per bird for losses incurred under the END eradication program, an exchange welcomed by an industry that's been trying to reduce the U.S. flock size for years and normally gets -0 to 10 cents per unwanted hen. U.S. egg companies normally suffocate their "spent" flocks in dumpsters and sell them to renderers, having no other market for their "product." "They'd be crying all the way to the bank," if their chickens were stricken, one poultry producer told the Los Angeles Times (1/8/03). It is thus reasonable to suppose that many flocks are intentionally being "stricken" and that END has to do not only with cockfighting but collusion between the egg industry and the government to consolidate the industry and eliminate the smaller guys, who are killing their birds, taking the money, and selling their land to real estate developers.

• Urge U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman to endorse, and your Members of Congress to support, the Ensign-Allard-Cantwell (Senate) and Bartlett-Andrews (House of Representatives) legislation that increases interstate commerce in birds intended for cockfighting from a misdemeanor to a felony. Tell Secretary Veneman to stop reimbursing cockfighters as part of the END eradication program. Tell your Members of Congress you do not want your taxes used to benefit cockfighters but to support a federal program to uphold federal and state laws that prohibit cockfighting.

  The Honorable Ann Veneman
  Secretary of Agriculture
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1400 Independence Avenue, SW
  Washington DC 20250
  Phone: 202-720-3631
  Fax: 202-720-2166
  Email: agsec@usda.gov

  The Honorable _________
  U.S. Senate
  Washington DC 20510

  The Honorable _________
  U.S. House of Representatives
  Washington DC 20515

  To find your U.S. Senators and House Representative call the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or go to www.hsus.org.

• Tell Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and your Members of Congress you do not want your taxes used to indemnify the poultry and egg industries for their "losses" - the suffocation, gassing, and "mulching" of millions of helpless birds. Ask why U.S. taxpayers are being forced to prop up these billion-dollar industries. The CA poultry industry is valued at $3.2 billion and the U.S. chicken industry at nearly $17 billion. Request a written response