LOS ANGELES county CA under bird quarantine :(

[Aunt Angus]

I have been thinking about this quite a bit, trying to put myself in others' shoes. I'm not sure how I would behave were I in that same situation. Government officials, who likely view chickens as livestock primarily, coming to my door to grab my beautiful chickens by their legs (which terrifies them), shove them in a garbage can in piles, and gas them? Chickens I took in for the purpose of raising in order to have eggs from hens who are cared for and given the best life possible, creatures who I feel have the same right to happiness? Living, sentient beings who have personalities and emotions?

Iris, who is shy but curious. Zinnia, who is confident and clever. Aster, who is quiet and docile. Poppy, who is a very devoted mother to baby Bryony.

I promised to keep them from harm, and I'd be forced to sit by idly, helplessly as they die. Yeah. I'd be emotional. I might even be hysterical and say stuff I didn't really mean. I'd definitely be traumatized. Do I understand the science behind the euthanasia? Sure, but sometimes irrational love trumps logic.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

As to the whether or not the euthanasia of poultry is humane, any owner who has been notified that their flock has been targeted has the option of performing the euthanasia themselves in the manner that they think best. CDFA has an instructional video of bloodless cervical dislocation on their site if any owner is troubled about how its employees may deal with an emergency situation.

It may be that it would be necessary to preserve the carcasses for testing but this argument strikes me as the perfect being the enemy of the good when the economy of the state and the continued health of flocks throughout the state and neighboring states is in present danger.

What is or is not "working" is difficult to say since we can't have any idea how many birds and states might now be in contagion if the present measures hadn't been adopted and enforced.

I respect your feelings about this Animalfisherwoman. I think you've been reasonable in previous discussions. But I absolutely disagree that we shouldn't be supporting the CDFA in order to bring this to the quickest resolution. And I couldn't disagree more about Kerri Hand and SOB. She is putting ALL of us flock owners in jeopardy -- immediate jeopardy for the health of our flocks and potential jeopardy for our right to have them. If local zoning is modified to be more restrictive about urban chickens I think she and SOB will be LARGELY responsible for it.

I respect your pov Iamrainey. That said, kerri's situation is different from the others b/c she was in direct contact with Annette Jones who sent her email telling anyone who came to contact her, and then she didn't do anything. A man spoke before Jurupa Valley City Council yesterday saying that four of his chickens were shot without any consent by him, and then they told him THEY WERE IN THE WRONG AREA. The issues raised around biosecurity breaches and taking birds to the dump in non-hazmat bags are real, the video of the CDFA worker holding a flapping chicken underfoot while appearing to shoot randomly is real, CDFA going no-show on appointments and showing up when residents aren't home and going into yards is real. These are all archived on video there for anyone to see. Regardless of how the VND crisis is handled, handling it this way is a needless violation of citizens' rights, and it needs to desist immediately.

 

[IamRainey]

We disagree about Kerri Hand. I think she's a woman with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and an unreasonable need to control. I think she's condemned by her own video.

Has anyone here watched it? It's tedious but since it's the foundation of her claims, I think it's essential. And it DOESN'T make her look good....

Anyone who thinks that the state veterinarian charged with eradicating vND over 29,000 square miles of Southern California was bound to respond personally and repeatedly to this demanding woman is a fool regardless of what early communications they may have had. Period. The expanding size of the emergency trumps Kerri Hand's need to turn her personal loss into revolt against the people charged with protecting the rest of us.

As for the Riverside County gentleman, the edict regarding vND is clear that suspect chickens and chickens in suspect areas WILL BE ERADICATED. There is no agreement on the part of owners required. If they made a mistake and showed up at the wrong property it's tragic and no doubt the man will be compensated to the extent that the state can even if they can't undo the tragedy. But this is a large scale operation involving thousands of CDFA and USDA new and temporary employees operating over 3 huge counties and, as others have said before me, involving over a million birds. Is there anyone here who is willing to say that sincere mistakes aren't inevitable?

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

We disagree about Kerri Hand. I think she's a woman with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and an unreasonable need to control. I think she's condemned by her own video.

Has anyone here watched it? It's tedious but since it's the foundation of her claims, I think it's essential. And it DOESN'T make her look good....

Anyone who thinks that the state veterinarian charged with eradicating vND over 29,000 square miles of Southern California was bound to respond personally and repeatedly to this demanding woman is a fool regardless of what early communications they may have had. Period.

OK but..Annette Jones did in fact correspond with Hand, setting up Hand for what Hand thought were reasonable expectations on Hand's part, guided by Jones herself. It was Jones herself who appears to have taken Hand on as a personal project including assuring Hand to call her if people came. And given Jones' position, it was not unrealistic for Hand to believe Jones.

Regarding the Jurupa Valley resident who was told by them, "oops wrong area" after they came to his property when he wasn't home and used firearms...it's not adequate compensation to say, four hens, $8 apiece. Here's $32, don't sue us. It was on CDFA to GET the area right in the first place, it was on them to first seek consent and then get a warrant only if consent didn't happen, it was on them to not use firearms injudiciously to the extent it sent their next-door neighbors running. None of that happened.

Jones' inconsistency in not just this individual matter but over the whole op is breathtaking. She is the one everyone's been told is in charge, yet she has unskilled workers committing biosec breaches daily like carrying chickens in a non-biohaz truck house by house, shooting chickens unannounced in what turned out to be the wrong area, not observing protocol as to firearms usage and so on. Hand isn't at fault for bringing Jones' faults to light through cellphone videos and encouraging others to do so; it is Jones' responsibility to do things correctly in the first place. Her farm near Davis also poses a significant personal conflict IMO. She is in charge of forcibly killing tens of thousands of pets in the southland, and at the same time, she's running a for-profit farm--2,500 hens--advertising how yummy her FREE-RANGE (no biosecurity) eggs are. I know Jones' farm is not in the zone, but this is terrible optics and leadership. Hand is after all just a regular citizen. Jones is in charge of the entire operation. I find Jones' tone-deafness in all areas to be a risk that might well scare more people into running. In that respect, I believe Jones is a far, far greater risk than Hand.

 

[BlueBaby]

An op-ed was also written in Valley News. This is the local paper for the hemet (riverside co) area https://www.myvalleynews.com/story/...D-Qk0cwPTi9uQW0V6plCnkjqOf07YkSEtdPuNRS7_c6fM

Copypasted below:

I’m not sure how many people are aware of Virulent Newcastle disease. If you own chickens, you probably know because the feed stores have flyers informing the public of it.

Virulent Newcastle disease spreads when healthy birds come in contact with bodily fluids from sick birds. California has been under quarantine, but the disease is spreading. Even domestic birds can catch it.

I understand that the birds have to be euthanized to control the spread, but the manner in which CDFA is doing this is inhumane. Some situations documented; they are trying to shoot them with single shot air guns or pellet guns and breaking legs and necks by stomping on them.

State veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones said they are to be humanely euthanized. Many of these animals, such as chickens, turkeys and geese that have been killed in front of their families, did not deserve to be harmed and injured, before being killed.

All of these animals have brains, nervous system, feelings and their own personalities. We are not talking about slaughterhouse chickens, these are backyard egg layers and barn companions.

When a pet’s time has come, you want it to slip away with an ounce of peace, not terror and fear before death takes its life away.

Making it worse is the landfill disposal of the infected birds bodies, hundreds and thousands of diseased birds at the landfill with thousands of sea gulls, crows, ravens and small birds, waiting to scavenge and eat and fly back to the coast or mountains to feed their babies. Is it possible this dumping of killed birds at the dump would not further the spread of the disease?

This practice is still spreading the disease along with workers who are not following proper protocols for disinfecting the area after the killings. Body fluids have been left in yards that will most likely feed the wild birds coming in and out of the area.

The landfill rules do allow for the disposal of infected birds, but why wouldn’t we have the bodies cremated? Wouldn’t that at least insure other birds were not scavenging the dead animals.

All of the treatment mentioned and disposal of diseased birds is recorded on video, and the people in charge of the kills are denying it and hoping the greater population does not see or hear about their methods.

The disease can affect poultry and other birds. Chickens are most susceptible. Ducks and geese are the least, but the CDFA is killing geese and ducks in the kill zones even if their testing is clean.

This euthanasia has been going on for a year, obviously the methods are not working.

Please stop the inhumane killing of all barnyard and backyard birds, these are our beloved pets. We love them, talk to them and care for them every day. We are horrified the way this issue has been allowed to be handled. If nothing changes, I am sure I will lose my babies. I am heartbroken that it will happen and that it has already happened to so many southern Californians that watched their pets be abused or mistreated before being killed.



Leigh Ann Strickland

I'm sorry to butt in, but as I read this I couldn't help but think that this is being done to help the hatcheries to be able to sell more? It seem's that these people are being so careless in the disposal of the bird's that they have had fun dispatching, and are not at all concerned with it spreading, through the vultures that will come in to feed off of them at the landfill's. They also don't seem to care about stomping on them and walking around afterward's, with the virus on the bottom of their footwear.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

I'm sorry to butt in, but as I read this I couldn't help but think that this is being done to help the hatcheries to be able to sell more? It seem's that these people are being so careless in the disposal of the bird's that they have had fun dispatching, and are not at all concerned with it spreading, through the vultures that will come in to feed off of them at the landfill's. They also don't seem to care about stomping on them and walking around afterward's, with the virus on the bottom of their footwear.

I don't think the mail-order hatcheries are involved. Hatcheries right now are prohibited by USPS from shipping to to ALL of California from Fresno South (zips 90000-93999). That's a much greater area than the quarantine including San Diego, Imperial, Ventura and Orange Counties (not under quarantine), b/c to get to them by air means going through lax. Even Bell can't truck deliver chicks to any of those non-quarantine zones as it would mean going through the Q area as well. The actions right now are costing hatcheries significant money; i think they just want the q lifted period.

 

[BlueBaby]

I don't think so. Hatcheries right now are prohibited by USPS from shipping to to ALL of California from Fresno South (zips 90000-93999). That's a much greater area than the quarantine including San Diego, Imperial, Ventura and Orange Counties (not under quarantine), b/c to get to them by air means going through lax. Even Bell can't truck deliver chicks to any of those non-quarantine zones as it would mean going through the Q area as well.

Is that just chick's, or does it also include hatching egg's for over there? I'm in Az., but I'm curious.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

Is that just chick's, or does it also include hatching egg's for over there? I'm in Az., but I'm curious.

No live poultry OR hatching eggs can be shipped to zips 90000-93999. It is also illegal for residents in the q zone itself to move live poultry or hatching eggs. The egglaying operations in the zone (commercial or farmers market) need to get a special permit to sell even regular eggs on site or move regular eggs out of the zone.

 

[IamRainey]

The hatcheries are forbidden to sell any chicks that would travel through LAX, BabyBlue. That is to say they can't replace any poultry lost in the quarantine areas. At least not until this is all over and that would be, as I understand it, 4 months after the last reported case.

As for the fact that the whole campaign is targeted at saving commercial operations, that only makes sense as they are the ones supplying meat and eggs to the population of CA and they are the ones already practicing biosecurity while the largest threat comes from people transporting birds around the state and between states. That may not be convenient to us but it only makes sense.

I don't see Jones' personal business changing the dynamics of who can supply what Californians need in any way.

You and I and the folks here on BYC, Animalfisherwoman, may not be endangering commercial flocks with the private flocks we love and care for to the best of our ability. But other small flock owners like people fighting chickens and people listening to Kerri Hand's admonition to hide their birds and remove their birds ARE. In that respect, the SOB folks are putting us in greater danger of more aggressive targeting by CDFA and potentially greater restrictions on our right to have our birds.

It's the disease we need to be fighting. Not one another.

 

[IamRainey]

As Animalfisherwoman says, NO movement of birds or eggs outside of or within the quarantine area with a penalty of up to $1K per item per violation. Could get pricey!!!