Teenage Boys Arrested for Killing Chickens at El Monte Elementary in Concord, CA

Three teenage boys – two 15-year olds and one 14-year old – were arrested on December 1, 2010 for strangling to death Linny and Maxine, two hens living peacefully with four other hens at El Monte Elementary School in Concord, California. According to the Contra Costa Times, “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.”

Under CA Penal Code 597, a person is guilty of cruelty to animals who “maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures or wounds a living animal, or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal.”

Please urge the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office to prosecute these teenagers (their names were withheld by police due to their ages) for cruelty to animals. It’s important to the Concord community and the school that they be punished for their crime. Their cruelty 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. Their cruelty caused suffering to the students, teachers, principal, and the custodian who found the chickens tortured to death.

Contact:

District Attorney Mark A. Peterson 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