Seniors in trouble for fowl abuse
Senior Chicken Prank Runs Afowl Of Law
Seniors at Fairview High School in the Boulder Valley School District let 39 red vested chickens loose in the school hallways. The school officials are apparently PETA members, judging by their overboard response to the prank.
School officials found 39 chickens dressed in red vests and capes running in the halls of Fairview High School Tuesday morning. With the help of police and students, the birds were herded into the vice principal’s office until the Humane Society of Boulder could take them to the shelter.
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[Donald Stensrud] The principal of Fairview said disciplinary action has been taken against one student who was keeping the chickens and others are being sought.The Humane Society plans to conduct a full investigation and those involved could face misdemeanor charges of animal abandonment. Each of the 39 charges could net a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.
That kills me. It is perfectly acceptable to snap a chicken’s neck but you can be put to jail for 90 days for setting one free in a school. Hundreds of parents “abandon” their kids at that school every day but they don’t get charged.
(Tip credit to Bumper)
…I should have something intelligent to say, but all I can think of is the time-honored prank of releasing three chickens in the school labeled 1, 2, and 4…
But, goats ARE O.K., Right?
I don’t see a ZT story here. If these students (most of them 18 or over = adults) broke the law, they may be subject to criminal prosecution. Welcome to the RW.
How about this - it was a PRANK…the chickens are ANIMALS…they weren’t tortured…why prosecute?
Sub
P.S. The real world should have real sense. If torturing animals made them taste better, I’d do it.
Matt, this article is about zero tolerance for kids being kids and zero intelligence on the part of the administration for the same. Hours after I sent this to Jim I ran across the following:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1417224.html
I reccommend the link the pix says it all!
Ananova:
Clothing for chickens
A range of fashion clothing for chickens has been launched by a group of designers working in Austria and Japan.
A chicken modelling the clothes /Europics
Austrian Edgar Honetschlaeger said he decided to work with the Japanese on the project because he hoped to make the chicken label clothing essential. He said “It’s something that you don’t really need but everyone wants to have anyway”.
The idea has already taken off after the designers staged a fashion show that is now touring the world.
Several farmers have already had chicken suits with the name of their farm ordered and many advertisers have enquired about the possibility of having sponsored suits promoting everything from KFC to chicken soup.
The chicken suits come in various sizes, and had their first presentation in the Austrian pavilion of the World exhibition in Nagoya, Japan, where 20 chickens paraded a catwalk with Mozart music playing in the background.
The chicken suit collection will continue its world-wide tour with shows planned in Tokyo, Paris, Mexico City and Vienna.
I think the contrast between what brings on animal cruelty charges and commonly used animal slaughter practices is bizarre too, but I don’t think the solution is to permit animal cruelty!
The linked article quoted a Humane Society Member saying “These pranks, while they might seem funny to students, are very stressful to the animals involved.”
It seems likely that the kids didn’t really think about how the animals they were using could be affected by their prank. You don’t have to be a huge animal rights activist to believe that students need to know the consequences of their decisions. One of the consequences was that they endangered the health of some animals.
I think jail time is absolutely inappropriate, but I don’t think it’s ridiculous at all to make these students realize that their prank was not completely harmles.
WTF is animal “abandonment?” Seems to me that living without human supervision is the natural state for animals.
Animal abandonment laws, IIRC, are designed to cut down on people leaving kittens and puppies on the side of the road or in parking lots because they don’t want them.
If I were the administrators the punishment would be to gather the chickens and prepare them for cooking.
Sub
Having lived on a chicken farm, I can think of a much harsher punishment: cleaning the halls and everywhere else the chickens got into.
”School officials found 39 chickens dressed in red vests and capes running in the halls of Fairview High School Tuesday morning.”
”The head of the Humane Society told the Boulder Daily Camera that the incident shows that students need to be educated about taking care of animals.”
Yes, the whole cape and vest thing is so ‘last year’. Lets try losing the capes and go with an Old Navy polo shirt and khakis. Everyone knows its positively inhumane to have an uncool outfit.
Let’s get the Old Navy singer and that weird lady with big glasses in that school immediately!
As Arwen posted (thanks),
The linked article quoted a Humane Society Member saying “These pranks, while they might seem funny to students, are very stressful to the animals involved.”
I used to raise chickens, and we would occasionally have problems with ‘possums getting into the hen house. I don’t put much stock into the “stressful to the animals” BS when they are too stupid to get off of the perch and out of the house when one of their number is being eaten not more than 3 feet away!
Come to think of it, maybe the quoted Humane Society member has more in commen with the chickens than I previously thought.
http://www.peta.org/feat/hiddenlives/index.html offers another perspective. Don’t chickens have some rights, too?
Joe, I’m with you there. I think too many PETA-heads think animals are as anthropomorphic as Disney characters. I grew up on a dairy farm, and I tell my kids that, intelligence-wise, cows basically are vegetables. So… Please Enjoy Tasty Animals.
Matt, Arwen, yes, chickens have rights. They have the right to 11 herbs and spices. If anything, those kids did those chickens a favor. Because the shool didn’t know what to do with them, they handed them over to a bunch of animal rights whackos who will see to it that they NEVER end up in someone’s McNuggets. Those chickens would be in the deep fryer by now, but now they’ll end up in some sort of chicken rescue sanctuary.
I just think I would like to have seen this.