Fenguin
09-12-03, 08:40 AM
Source (http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/090503/LOC_chicken.shtml)
Don't do amateur experiments on farm animals in Statesboro.
Four Georgia Southern University students face criminal charges and school disciplinary action. They are accused of killing chickens just to see whether they really run around with their heads cut off.
Animal lovers said no such experiments are necessary. It's well-established chickens can run around after their heads are cut off – as well as jerk and twist – as a nervous reaction.
"All they had to do was ask a science teacher. Or ask a farmer," said Rob Lee, executive director of the Humane Society of Chatham-Savannah.
Students Brennan Lee Hoffman, 18; Guillermo Alejandro Briceno, 18; Beau Wesley Hamilton, 19; and Jacob David Plunkett, 18, were arrested Sunday and charged with burglary, cruelty to animals and criminal trespass. Their three visiting friends – Natalie Mae Britt, 17; Natalie Jeannie Ingram, 18; and Richard Martin Gonzalez, 19 – face the same criminal charges. A few also face underage drinking charges.
Hoffman and Gonzalez also were charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony offense.
The teens, all from Conyers, were released on bond.
Bulloch County Chief Deputy Gene McDaniel said the teens brought machetes, knives and a hatchet, and broke into a commercial chicken house on Brannen Farm Lane on Harville Road.
McDaniel said they are accused of taping and photographing the decapitation of at least two chickens. A man found the teens in his chicken house and called authorities, McDaniel said.
The teens got the idea when someone made a comment referring to "chickens running around with their heads chopped off," McDaniel said.
"Apparently some of them wondered if it was true," McDaniel said.
The director of judicial affairs at GSU plans to press charges under the student conduct code, University spokesman Michael Sullivan said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
"This is considered a serious incident," he said. "It is not being taken lightly."
The students could be suspended or expelled, or could receive a disciplinary warning or be placed on probation, AP reported.
"We're really embarrassed," Hamilton said Wednesday, according to AP. "We're really not even bad kids. It was a bad incident and we feel really bad."
Acts of animal cruelty are not uncommon – especially to chickens, cats and dogs, Lee said.
"We've seen cases of dogs being burned in Savannah, dog fighting, dogs being hung, people throwing gasoline on cats," Lee said.
"It's not just something that happens in rural areas. And it's not specific to certain social levels either. Rich kids do it, as well as poor ones. Adults as well as kids.
"It's usually people with a real low regard for the rights of others, whether it's people or animals."
Yeah, it's messed up. But how are their actions any more heinous than the farmer who's going to cut the chickens' heads off anyway? If they held everyone to this standard, the CEO of Tyson Foods would be hopping on a plane to a non-extradition country right now.
Don't do amateur experiments on farm animals in Statesboro.
Four Georgia Southern University students face criminal charges and school disciplinary action. They are accused of killing chickens just to see whether they really run around with their heads cut off.
Animal lovers said no such experiments are necessary. It's well-established chickens can run around after their heads are cut off – as well as jerk and twist – as a nervous reaction.
"All they had to do was ask a science teacher. Or ask a farmer," said Rob Lee, executive director of the Humane Society of Chatham-Savannah.
Students Brennan Lee Hoffman, 18; Guillermo Alejandro Briceno, 18; Beau Wesley Hamilton, 19; and Jacob David Plunkett, 18, were arrested Sunday and charged with burglary, cruelty to animals and criminal trespass. Their three visiting friends – Natalie Mae Britt, 17; Natalie Jeannie Ingram, 18; and Richard Martin Gonzalez, 19 – face the same criminal charges. A few also face underage drinking charges.
Hoffman and Gonzalez also were charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony offense.
The teens, all from Conyers, were released on bond.
Bulloch County Chief Deputy Gene McDaniel said the teens brought machetes, knives and a hatchet, and broke into a commercial chicken house on Brannen Farm Lane on Harville Road.
McDaniel said they are accused of taping and photographing the decapitation of at least two chickens. A man found the teens in his chicken house and called authorities, McDaniel said.
The teens got the idea when someone made a comment referring to "chickens running around with their heads chopped off," McDaniel said.
"Apparently some of them wondered if it was true," McDaniel said.
The director of judicial affairs at GSU plans to press charges under the student conduct code, University spokesman Michael Sullivan said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
"This is considered a serious incident," he said. "It is not being taken lightly."
The students could be suspended or expelled, or could receive a disciplinary warning or be placed on probation, AP reported.
"We're really embarrassed," Hamilton said Wednesday, according to AP. "We're really not even bad kids. It was a bad incident and we feel really bad."
Acts of animal cruelty are not uncommon – especially to chickens, cats and dogs, Lee said.
"We've seen cases of dogs being burned in Savannah, dog fighting, dogs being hung, people throwing gasoline on cats," Lee said.
"It's not just something that happens in rural areas. And it's not specific to certain social levels either. Rich kids do it, as well as poor ones. Adults as well as kids.
"It's usually people with a real low regard for the rights of others, whether it's people or animals."
Yeah, it's messed up. But how are their actions any more heinous than the farmer who's going to cut the chickens' heads off anyway? If they held everyone to this standard, the CEO of Tyson Foods would be hopping on a plane to a non-extradition country right now.