Live Chickens Sold in Sealed Bags by San Francisco Markets
Law Enforcement Turns Blind Eye - Letters Are Urgently Needed!

Animal advocacy investigators in San Francisco, California have documented extreme cruelty to chickens and other birds being sold to customers by San Francisco’s live animal vendors. The website, “Animal Abuse at San Francisco Farmers’ Markets,” explains the situation including links to recent TV coverage, with more coverage expected: www.lgbtcompassion.org/livemarkets/livemarkets.htm.

Click on the above link for the full report, including who to write to and what to say in your letter. Please keep checking this website for updates. This is an ongoing investigation of horrendous and illegal cruelty to helpless birds in San Francisco, facilitated by San Francisco’s Animal Care & Control office’s failure to enforce California’s animal cruelty laws. Singled out for egregious, exemplary cruelty to chickens by the investigators are: Raymond Young’s market at UN Plaza in the Civic Center, and New Longs live poultry market in the parking lot of Good Hope Baptist Church near the Alemany Blvd farmers market.

Although California law 599b defines “animal” to include “all dumb animals” without exception for protection, and cruelty to all animals is prohibited under the California Penal Code’s “Animal Welfare Provisions, Section 597. Cruelty to Animals,” an exception appears in Section 597.3 on live animal markets, where “Animal” is arbitrarily defined to mean “frogs, turtles, and birds sold for the purpose of human consumption, with the exception of poultry.”

This means that birds such as quails and partridges sold at the markets (and treated horribly by the vendors) are classed separately from chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese, commonly defined as “poultry” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

So-called “spent” hens and roosters (“poultry”) are particularly victimized by the vendors, who stuff them upside down into paper or plastic bags - or paper bags inside plastic bags - for customers to take home, “often in their car trunks, after carrying them around shopping,” to kill as they please for food, ritual sacrifice or cockfighting.

Customers also carry the live birds illegally sealed up in bags onto buses and rapid transit trains (MUNI & BART), and live birds are held in restaurants to be “fresh-killed” for restaurant patrons - a violation of San Francisco’s Department of Health Code 050, which states that “No live bird or fowl shall be kept or allowed in a food facility.”

Please click on www.lgbtcompassion.org/livemarkets/livemarkets.htm and get involved! This link can also be found in UPC’s Live Poultry Markets section of our website at www.upc-online.org/livemarkets/. Thank You for Helping These Birds!

• 06/24/09: To: San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris
• 06/25/09: To: Christine Adams, Manager, The Heart of the City Farmers Market Community
  
• 06/26/09: To: Reverend Rance Whiteside, Good Hope Baptist Church
• 06/29/09: To: Amy Brown, Director of Real Estate,City and County of San Francisco
  

• 07/01/09: To: Jeffrey Ross, Chief of the Criminal Division, San Francisco DA’s Office
  

• 06/29/09: From: Amy Brown, Director of Real Estate,City and County of San Francisco
• 06/24/09: From Office of District Attorney Kamala D. Harris

• 08/07/09: Help Stop San Francisco Good Hope Church-Sponsored Cruelty to Birds This Sunday August 9th
  
  

June 24, 2009

From: Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns, Inc.

To: San Francisco District Attorney Kamala D. Harris
Criminal Division
Hall of Justice
850 Bryant Street, Room 322
San Francisco, CA 94103
Via Email to: Erica.derryck@sfgov.org and districtattorney@sfgov.org

Re: San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Dear Ms. Harris:

I am writing to you on behalf of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit animal protection organization with thousands of members in California, regarding recent disclosures of extreme and illegal cruelty being perpetrated by San Francisco’s live animal market vendors against birds. The most startling abuses, affecting all of the birds being handled, caged, transported and sold by these vendors, are being inflicted upon chickens - hens and roosters. We respectfully urge your office to take immediate aggressive prosecutorial action in this matter.

We’re aware that an arbitrary definition of “poultry,” in section 597.3 of California Penal Code 597, appears to exclude chickens from the coverage afforded to other birds sold by San Francisco’s live market vendors. While this does not mean that other birds in these markets are being protected, what it does mean is that, even though chickens have the exact same complex sensory capabilities as all other avian species, they are being intentionally abandoned by San Francisco’s law enforcement agencies, at the behest of commercial interests, to endure exceptionally cruel treatment by San Francisco’s live market vendors and customers.

An example is the vendors’ practice of sealing chickens, alive, in paper and plastic bags for customers to carry off in car trunks and public transit. This is a violation of CA Penal Code section 597a: Transporting animals in a cruel manner.

Despite the arbitrary and exclusionary definition of “poultry,” in section 597.3, there are numerous provisions in California Penal Code 597 penalizing anyone who subjects “any animal [including chickens] to needless suffering, or inflicts unnecessary cruelty upon the animal, or in any manner abuses any animal, or fails to provide the animal with proper food, drink or shelter.” In addition, California law 599b defines “animal” to include “all dumb animals,” and there are other laws, such as Health Code 050, which states that “No live bird or fowl shall be kept or allowed in a food facility,” yet keeping live chickens in certain San Francisco restaurants has been documented, even though it is illegal.

There is no “necessity,” whatsoever, for the kinds of extreme abuses that San Francisco vendors are inflicting on chickens and other birds. For example, forcing them to sit unshaded in the sun; packing them so tightly in cages they can’t move; throwing them in bags from the trucks onto the ground; yanking them out of cages by their feet while they cry out in pain; tying their feet together and leaving them tied up on the ground; carrying them by their wings; and sealing them up in plastic and paper bags.

It is time for San Francisco law enforcement to put a stop to these cruelties. United Poultry Concerns urges you to pursue prosecution of market vendors whose cases have been, and will be, brought before your office by Animal Care and Control. An example is Raymond Young’s market at UN Plaza in the Civic Center. Mr. Young has been cited about 700 times for cruelty violations, yet we are told that your office has refused to prosecute. This is unacceptable.

Our organization stands ready to assist you in this matter. Please let us know what we can do to help, and how your office plans to proceed. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. We look forward to a written response.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
Phone: 757-678-7875
Fax: 757-678-5070
Email: Karen@upc-online.org
Website: www.upc-online.org

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

June 25, 2009

From Karen Davis, PhD, President, United Poultry Concerns, Inc.

To: Christine Adams, Manager
The Heart of the City Farmers Market Community
Advisory Board
1182 Market Street #412
San Francisco, CA 94102
Via Email: hocfarmersmarket@gmail.com

Re: San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Dear Ms. Adams:

I am writing to you on behalf of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit animal protection organization, regarding recent disclosures of extreme cruelty to birds, and especially to chickens, at Raymond Young Poultry at the Civic Center, UN Plaza Farmers Market. We understand The Heart of the City operates this market under a permit from the City, allowing use of the City’s property.

I am writing to ask you to establish and enforce some basic humane standards of treatment by the vendors toward the birds they are selling to customers at the Raymond Young market, and at any other live animal markets you may also operate under a City permit.

Recent eyewitness accounts and television coverage have revealed violent and abusive treatment of chickens by vendors at Raymond Young Poultry. Mr. Young has been cited for cruelty violations approximately 700 times in recent months by Animal Care and Control. But due to an arbitrary definition of “poultry” in section 597.3 of California Penal Code 597, Animal Care and Control and the District Attorney’s Office have not been enforcing Penal Code 597, even though this law was designed to protect all animals from the kinds of abuses being inflicted on birds, and particularly on hens and roosters, at Raymond Young Poultry.

Please establish standards requiring vendors to provide fresh clean available water and food to all of the birds at all times. Raymond Young is putting tiny plastic cups in the wire cages that get instantly knocked over. Please require vendors to provide shade instead of forcing birds to sit in cages for hours under the hot sun. Please require vendors to provide at least enough cage space for birds to spread their wings and stand upright. Please prohibit vendors from throwing crated birds onto the ground from trucks. Please prohibit vendors from sealing birds in paper or plastic bags.

Our organization stands ready to assist you, if you will please let us know what we can do to help. I hope we can count on you and The Heart of the City to set humane standards of animal care for the vendors at the markets you oversee. I look forward to hearing from you, thanking you in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
Phone: 757-678-7875
Fax: 757-678-5070
Email: Karen@upc-online.org
Website: www.upc-online.org

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

June 26, 2009

Reverend Rance Whiteside Good Hope Baptist Church
551 Nevada Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

Re: San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Dear Reverend Whiteside:

I am writing to you on behalf of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit animal protection organization, regarding recent disclosures of extreme cruelty to chickens and other birds being sold by the vendor in your parking lot. I am distressed that a Christian Church would facilitate such cruelty. Perhaps you are not fully aware of the suffering being inflicted on these birds and the lack of mercy to which they are being subjected. I am writing respectfully to ask you please to discontinue allowing your Church to be used for this abusive commercial activity.

At the very least, in the interim, please establish and enforce basic humane standards of treatment toward the birds being sold on your property. Please require the vendor to provide fresh clean available water and food to all of the birds at all times. Please require the vendor to provide shade rather than forcing birds to sit in cages for hours under the hot sun. (In addition to holding crated birds inside the truck, the vendor also has had crates of birds outside.) Please require the vendor to provide enough cage space for birds to spread their wings and stand upright. Please prohibit the vendor from handling the birds abusively when retrieving them from the cages. Please prohibit the vendor from holding birds upside down by their legs or holding them by their wings. Birds should be held gently in an upright position the way Jesus held sheep in his arms. Please prohibit the vendor from sealing birds in paper or plastic bags.

Our organization stands ready to assist you, if you will please let us know what we can do to help. Most of all, I respectfully urge you and your Congregation to stop allowing your Church to be used as a marketplace for the live animal trade. Jesus threw the market vendors out of the temple - “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought” (St. Luke 19:45). I hope you will too. Thank you for your kind consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President

June 29, 2009

Via Email: amy.brown@sfgov.org

Re: San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Dear Ms. Brown:

I am writing to you on behalf of United Poultry Concerns, a nonprofit animal protection organization with thousands of members in California, regarding recent disclosures of extreme and illegal cruelty being conducted by San Francisco’s live animal vendors toward birds. The most cruel and abusive treatment appears to be inflicted upon chickens - hens and roosters. We respectfully urge your office to establish and maintain standards of basic humane care toward these birds in compliance with California Penal Code 597 regarding Cruelty to Animals. These standards should require vendors to:

• Provide fresh clean available water and food for all of the birds at all times. Raymond Young has been putting tiny plastic cups in the wire cages that get instantly knocked over.

• Provide shade instead of forcing birds to sit in cages for hours under the hot sun.

• Provide enough cage space for birds to spread their wings and stand upright.

• Stop throwing crated birds onto the ground from trucks.

• Stop holding birds by their wings and/or carrying them upside down by their feet.

• Stop tying birds’ feet together and leaving them with their feet tied on the ground.

• Stop sealing birds inside paper and plastic bags for customers to walk away with and/or providing customers with bags to stuff live birds into.

We’re aware that an arbitrary definition of “poultry,” in section 597.3 of CA Penal Code 597, appears to exclude chickens from coverage afforded to other birds sold by San Francisco’s live market vendors. This arbitrary distinction, between “birds” and “poultry,” is being invoked as an excuse for vendors to treat chickens with particular violence and cruelty, including sealing them up in paper and plastic bags for customers to carry illegally onto buses and other public transit vehicles and into restaurants.

In addition, I understand that the City is negotiating a new contract with The Heart of the City, the nonprofit that operates Raymond Young Poultry at the UN Plaza Farmers Market in the Civic Center. As part of the new contract, please prohibit the buying and selling of live animals, just as the City does not allow sales of any live animals at the Alemany Farmers Market.

It is terrible that San Francisco is facilitating the animal cruelty being documented at UN Plaza. It’s a terrible example for San Francisco to set for the public. Birds - including chickens - are not inanimate, unfeeling objects. They have the same capacity for fear and pain as any other animal, the same right to humane treatment, and the public should not be encouraged by San Francisco’s government agencies and licensed vendors to think and behave otherwise.

Our organization stands ready to assist you in this matter. Please let us know what we can do to help, and how your office plans to proceed. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. We look forward to a written response. Thank you for your kind attention.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD, President
United Poultry Concerns
12325 Seaside Road, PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405
Phone: 757-678-7875
Fax: 757-678-5070
Email: Karen@upc-online.org
Website: www.upc-online.org

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

July 1, 2009

Jeffrey Ross
Chief of the Criminal Division, San Francisco District Attorney’s Office
Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street, Suite 322
San Francisco, CA 94103

Dear Mr. Ross:

I was provided with a copy of your letter of June 24, 2009 to Delcianna Winders regarding chickens at U.N. Plaza. As I am one who finds the treatment of chickens there absolutely inhumane, I appreciate your expressed feeling that the treatment appears inhumane, as this indicates to me that you would prosecute if it were possible to do so. I don’t know exactly what you were responding to, so I don’t know if you have been urged to prosecute under Penal Code section 597(b). That, I believe, is one law being violated.

Penal Code section 597(b) makes it a crime to torment an animal, to subject an animal to needless suffering, to inflict unnecessary cruelty on an animal, or in any manner to abuse an animal. These are the actions and indignities being imposed on the chickens at U.N. Plaza.

I cannot determine from your June 24 letter or otherwise why Penal Code section 597.3 could be an impediment to a prosecution for animal cruelty. Section 597.3 requires live animal market operators to engage in certain conduct which is protective of animals, and it excludes poultry from its definition of animals. Hence, a prosecution under 597.3 for actions taken toward chickens would not be possible. But 597.3 does not cover all conduct proscribed by 597(b). Certainly one can violate section 597(b) without also violating section 597.3, regardless of the species of the victims. You correctly say that a specific statute prevails over a general statute when the two cannot be reconciled. But that is not pertinent to our situation, where 597(b) - prohibiting torment, needless suffering, unnecessary cruelty, or abuse - is perfectly reconcilable with 597.3 which requires live animal markets to perform specific acts to protect its animals and says nothing about torment, needless suffering, unnecessary cruelty, or abuse.

The despicable treatment of chickens at U.N. Plaza is illegal. Because it insults and coarsens the sensibilities of decent people in addition to inflicting direct suffering on the innocent and defenseless chickens, it is sufficiently harmful to human and non-human animals in our society that it should be ended as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Baron L. Miller

From: "Amy Brown" <Amy.Brown@sfgov.org>
To: "Karen Davis" <karen@upc-online.org>
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 12:26 PM
Subject: Re: San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Thank you for your concern about the sale of live chickens in San Francisco. The City's Animal Care & Control Department (ACC) has attempted to reign in the farmers' market vendor's conduct to reduce these animals' suffering. However, there are limits on ACC's ability to prohibit all conduct by such vendors.

The District Attorney's Office prosecutes individuals who violate animal cruelty laws. If that office determines that they cannot pursue a criminal case, ACC has no further jurisdiction to prosecute a citation or arrest of individuals for animal cruelty. According to the ACC, the D.A. has determined that the statutes on animal cruelty very specifically make exceptions regarding the handling of live poultry that is marketed for human consumption and that those statutes mandate what prosecutors can and cannot pursue. The D.A.'s position is that without a change to state law, there is no legal means to prosecute the individual in question.

Consequently, ACC has suggested that concerned individuals and groups seek a change in state law or pursue other ways to change oversight of live animal sales. The permit for the Heart of the City Farmers' Market was issued by the SF Board of Supervisors. Accordingly, the Board has given HOC management the authority to oversee operations at that market. ACC will continue to work with the manager of the market to advise them about steps they can take to promote humane treatment of these animals, and Real Estate will work with the manager to ensure that the market abides by the terms of the permit issued by the Board of Supervisors.

Sincerely,

Amy L. Brown
Deputy City Administrator & Director of Real Estate
City and County of San Francisco
Phone: 415-554-9875
Fax: 415-552-9216
E-mail: amy.brown@sfgov.org

From: "Erica Derryck" <Erica.Derryck@sfgov.org>
To: "Karen Davis" <karen@upc-online.org>
Cc: "districtattorney@sfgov.org" <DistrictAttorney@Sfgov.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Thank you for your email expressing concern about the treatment of live chickens at a San Francisco open-air market.

The District Attorney's Office prosecutes individuals who violate animal cruelty laws. The statute on animal cruelty very specifically makes exceptions regarding the handling of live poultry that is marketed for human consumption. This statute mandates what prosecutors can and cannot pursue. The law also precludes our office from prosecuting this individual under the other statutes you mentioned. Without a change to state law, there is no legal means to prosecute the individual in question.

Best,
Erica Terry Derryck

Erica Terry Derryck
Deputy Public Information Officer
Office of District Attorney Kamala D. Harris
850 Bryant Street, Third Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-553-1167 phone
415-740-5134 cell
415-553-1737 fax
erica.derryck@sfgov.org