Queens County Farm Museum gives Employees Farm Animals for Slaughter

[pirtykitty]

This was posted on another poultry group I'm a member of..


Please send e-mails and make phone calls to stop this horrific cruelty at this NYC owned farm:

Animals from the Queens County Farm Museum were sent home with farm employees to be butchered and eaten. According to Kennon Kay, Director of Agriculture at the Queens County Farm Museum, a flock of wild mallards and resident farm animals (guinea hens, muscovy ducks, pekin ducks, domestic mallards, heritage breed ducks, and roosters), were eating the crops at the farm, so a management decision was made to give these animals to some of the employees to bring home to butcher and eat. This, despite the fact that an offer had previously been made to bring these birds to an animal sanctuary where they would be safe and cared for.

The farm elicits donations through their "Fund a Friend" program to care for these very animals.
http://www.queensfarm.org/our-animals.html

In addition to the fact that killing wild mallards is outright unlawful, and taking the farm's animals for personal use and profit of individual farm employees is theft and misappropriation of farm property, the slaughter of these farm animals, when a humane solution was available, is both senseless and cruel. The people responsible must be held accountable.

Senator Frank Padavan, who claims to be an animal advocate, is the driving force behind the farm and has influence on how the farm is run.
Please call/write/e-mail Senator Padavan's office and demand he intercede to stop this slaughter immediately and stop giving the birds to employees to butcher and eat. Demand those involved be fired and replaced with people who care about the farm animals. Demand he work to ensure those involved in the unlawful capture and killing of wild mallards be prosecuted.
Senator Frank Padavan
89-39 Gettysburg Street
Bellerose, NY, NY 11426
Phone: (718) 343-0255
Fax: (718) 343-0354
SEnator Padavan's e-mail addy:

[email protected]


Please call/write/e-mail DEC, and demand they prosecute everyone involved in the unlawful capture and killing of wild mallards from the farm. Complaint # 10-008254
Regional Director Suzanne Mattei
[email protected]
718-482-4949
DEC Enforcement Officer Lum: 718-956-6460

The farm is owned by NYC Parks and Rec. Please call/e-mail/write the NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation, Commissioner Adrian Benepe 212-360-8111
http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildpr.html

Please call/e-mail/write the Farm Museum and demand they stop this slaughter now and in the future.
Amy Boncardo, Executive Director
[email protected]
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Floral-Park-NY/The-Queens-County-Farm-Museum/118389648400



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[pirtykitty]

BTW, Puff Daddy, on the PDRU homepage, was rescued from this farm.
Please...letters, e-mails, phone calls are needed to stop this.

[email protected]

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

The wild mallards being eaten is illegal... and soliciting funds for animals that they are not 'caring for' is illegal. I do, however, know a lot of people who eat ducks, chickens and guinea hens, and I don't have a problem with that (unless they use my pots and pans!). The organization should have dealt with this differently.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I didn't see anything on that link about the museum keeping ducks or guineas or roosters. It looks like a place where they're preserving the farm culture of the community. Perhaps the waterfowl were a recent addition that turned out to be a bad idea not in keeping with their mission. Their website mentions that they raise heritage pigs for sale, most likely for the table. They don't seem to claim to be a farm animal sancturary (I just skimmed the site) but a museum to preserve the farm culture. Which includes the humane processing & consumption of some of the animals.

Maybe they know their staff will be responsible in humanely processing these birds. Perhaps this is one of the perks of the job, being permitted to take home (not steal) excess produce from the farm museum. If so, this would be the same as being able to bring home a bushel of apples or a basket of eggs that couldn't be sold at their farm stand.

I don't know about the unlawfulness of eating wild mallards. I didn't think they are an endangered species. I thought you could hunt for them.

From what I read (skimmed) on the site it seems their "Fund-a-Friend" program is to help provide for their flocks & herds of farm animals. They don't seem to claim to be a farm animal sanctuary that never processes any of their animals, but instead are working to preserve heritage breeds as a whole. The purpose of preserving them may include having enough of them for the table.

 

[chickboss]

Depending on your area, there is a season in which ducks are legally hunted by those who get a permit. However, in some areas of the country you are allowed to controll wildlife that is destroying your property/croops, ect. I have no idea if that was the case here or not. I really don't see what is cruel about allowing employees to take animals home to process. My neighbor gave me her unwanted roos, and my husband and I processed them. I was grateful for the gift. She simply didn't want to do it, so she gave them to us. I guess she could've tried to find them a home, but we live in a farm community, it would have been unlikely that her mutt roosters would've ended up anywhere but the stew pot. I just think of the shortage of good healthy food that isn't loaded with some kind of junk, and think to myself, that is pretty cool those employees got a real healthy meal from an animal that I assumed lived well, and more than likely died quick. If I'm missing somehting here, let me know, but I'm just not seeing the cruelity here.