UPC Letter to New York State Department of Education

November 19, 2008

Dr. Ann Crotty
Associate in Science Education
Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Instructional Technology
New York State Department of Education
89 Washington Avenue, Room 320EB
Albany, NY 12234

Re: Canandaigua Academy Chicken Slaughter Project

Dear Dr. Crotty:

I have carefully reviewed a copy of the waiver application submitted by the Canandaigua City School District to the New York State Education Department seeking approval to slaughter chickens at Canandaigua Academy. In the strongest possible terms I urge the Education Department to reject this application under New York State Education Law Section 809 - Humane Treatment of Live Vertebrate Animals.

The broadly generalized goal/objectives presented by the school district for the proposed slaughter – encouraging development of “higher level skills in students,” facilitating their transfer from Canandaigua Academy to Finger Lakes Community College,” providing an opportunity to earn credit hours for “Ornamental Horticulture-Landscaping Development or Conservation Elective,” and fostering “an awareness of baccalaureate transfer programs” – can be met by many other means. Killing chickens is neither necessary, nor even relevant, to fulfilling any of these purposes.

Regarding “(xvi) Termination of life,” the school district says on the application: “Chickens will have neck severed using the killing cone method considered to be very humane.” This vaguely worded statement, presented in the passive voice, epitomizes the carelessness of the entire application. Being immobilized in a killing cone while one’s throat is being sliced with a knife is not humane, let alone “very humane.”

The bird, in extreme pain, cannot even thrash – immobilization in a cone adds to the terrible death being endured. The only ones being “protected” are the observers and butchers, because they cannot see what is taking place inside the cone where the death throes and agony of dying are sealed up inside the container. As for “severing the neck,” does this mean decapitation? Or, if it means severing blood vessels within the neck without decapitation of the live bird, which blood vessels do they have in mind exactly? And what do they know about the very different functions and placement of the carotid arteries versus the jugular veins? Imagine if, instead of chickens, the “vertebrate animals” being subjected to this brutal treatment were dogs or cats. It has been scientifically established – it is no longer debated among reputable scientists – that the pain receptors and neurophysiology of birds and mammals, including human beings and chickens, are in essence and experientially identical. See, for example, “Pain In Birds” by Dr. Michael J. Gentle, Animal Welfare 1: 235-247, Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, 1992.

The very nature of the waiver application shows how poorly the students at Canandaigua Academy are being served by those who should be their role models, exemplifying the highest academic standards of thinking, writing and professional character. The Canandaigua School District, via local newspapers and the waiver application under review, has consistently advanced as “reasons” for slaughtering chickens every vague, far-fetched thing it could seize upon – teaching about “life and death,” about “world hunger,” “vegetarianism,” “where food comes from,” “factory farming,” and now “ornamental horticulture” and whatever else they can throw into the pot that will legitimize a wish, in the guise of “education,” to inflict death.

The teenagers at Canandaigua Academy, instead of being taught to kill innocent and defenseless birds – inhumanely shipped in 2007 from the Midwest to the school for this sad purpose like canned goods and luggage – these impressionable students need instead to be taught by their elders to respect life and protect living beings from preventable harm and death. There is no necessity whatsoever in the goal/objectives set forth in the school district’s waiver application for the infliction of death on vertebrate animals as a high school curriculum exercise. On the contrary.

I respectfully urge the New York State Education Department to deny the Canandaigua City School District’s waiver application to kill chickens under Education Law 809 - Humane Treatment of Live Vertebrate Animals. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your decision.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President
United Poultry Concerns
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
(757) 678-7875
Karen@upc-online.org

United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. www.upc-online.org