Cruelty To Animals

Six farm employees in Iowa were charged with animal abuse and neglect Wednesday in connection with a video obtained by an animal-rights group that showed workers abusing pigs. Authorities in Greene County northwest of Des Moines began investigating about a month ago after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video of workers at a farm in BayardIowa, hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about sodomizing sows with rods.

At Karen Dawn's Thanksgiving feast, there will be yams and stuffing with cranberries and a dessert of pumpkin-pecan pie, all set out on a table for eight. And there will be turkeys, two of them actually -- Emily and Bruce (or possibly Brucilla -- it's a little unclear). The two 20-pounders will have most of the privileges of Dawn's other sentient guests -- a Pacific Palisades patio, a view of the ocean and vegetarian nibbles.

Several workers at a Lewisburg turkey plant have been fired after they were caught on film abusing birds. Aviagen Turkeys spokeswoman Sandi Hofmann said the employees, including a supervisor, were let go around Thanksgiving. The abuse was disclosed last month by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which released undercover video of workers kicking and beating live turkeys.

The district attorney's office Tuesday filed felony animal cruelty charges against a Los Angeles County fire official in connection with the Nov. 3 beating of a neighbor's puppy. Assistant Fire Chief Glynn Johnson was arrested by sheriff's deputies on the same day he was charged. If convicted, he could face up to four years in state prison. He is alleged to have beaten the puppy, a 6-month-old shepherd mix, with his fist and a 12-pound rock after she ran across his Riverside yard.

The gray tabby cat with hazel eyes and a white nose scrunched at the bottom of a stack of metal cages filled with rabbits, quail, pigeons and ducks, across the aisle from the buckets of turtles and scorpions in a narrow shop with as many live animals as a petting zoo. If it was male or female, young or old, nobody seemed to know or care. All that mattered was its weight, 6 1/2 pounds. After a few quick calculations, the shopkeeper offered to sell the cat for $1.32 per pound, about $9.

A Los Angeles County assistant fire chief accused of beating a neighbor's 6-month-old puppy with a rock, cracking her skull and damaging her eye, said Monday that he acted in self-defense after the animal bit his thumb with what he called a "vise-like grip." Speaking at a news conference at his attorney's office in Beverly Hills, Glynn Johnson, 54, said the top of his thumb had nearly been ripped off and had to be sutured back on because of the bite.

State wildlife officials Wednesday said they have forwarded the results of a seven-month investigation into the deaths of hundreds of young seabirds last summer to the Long Beach city attorney's office for prosecution. More than 500 terns -- slim seabirds related to gulls but in this case mostly too young to fly -- plummeted off two privately owned barges in the Long Beach Harbor in late June.

After being sharply criticized for allowing developers to bury gopher tortoises alive, the state wildlife commission has released a plan intended to virtually eliminate the practice and halt the species' decline.

When two police officers came upon an organized dogfight in a trash-ridden alley in South Los Angeles earlier this week, they found two battered and bloody pit bulls. But the officers were surprised when they saw who allegedly was organizing the dogfight: a 13-year-old boy. He now has become the first person in Los Angeles to face felony dog fighting charges since a special task force was formed two years ago to crack down on animal cruelty, LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said.

As the Legislature wrapped up its regular session, debating tax cuts, the minimum wage and clean energy, one issue stood out for the amount of controversy it generated: cockfighting. This state was one of only two in the nation to allow the sport, albeit only in counties far from the galleries and restaurants of this capital city. Then Gov. Bill Richardson last week signed a bill to outlaw cockfighting, which has become a symbol of New Mexico's growing cultural divide.