“The compensation amounts are a ‘very
private and personal thing’ between bird owners and the government,
said Adrian Woodfork, a spokesman for the combined state and federal
Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force.” - The Californian,
3/15/03
Although cockfighting is a crime in California and 47 other states,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and California Department of
Food and Agriculture are using taxpayers money to indemnify cockfighters
who kill “game” birds suspected of exotic Newcastle
disease (END), an infectious avian virus being fought with gross
inhumaneness at taxpayers’ expense to protect the poultry
and egg industry. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request,
government officials told The Californian (Bakersfield, CA, 3/15)
that bird owners get between $5 and $1,850 per bird but “refuse
to explain how they calculate the compensation and who has received
how much for their birds.”
It’s been reported that $2 - $5 tax-dollars per bird is the
“fair market value” being given to owners of hen flocks
being destroyed under California’s END eradication program,
whereas $1,000 to $2,000 is the “fair market value”
being given to owners of birds bred and used for cockfighting, “an
illegal sport suspected of contributing to the rapid spread in Southern
California, Arizona and Nevada of the highly contagious virus”
(Californian, 3/15).
Urge U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman to stop reimbursing
cockfighters (“game fowl breeders”) with taxpayers’
money, and to endorse the Ensign-Allard-Cantwell (Senate) and Bartlett-Andrews
(House) legislation that increases interstate commerce in birds
intended for cockfighting to a felony offence.
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.
Make the same request to your Members of Congress. To learn who
your House Representative and Senators are, call the Capital Switchboard
at 202-224-3121 or go to
http://www.hsus.org
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes
the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. http://www.UPC-online.org
United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org |
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