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When her neighbor's roosters and chickens persisted in running through her yard, G. Stone took matters into her own hands. She marched next door and issued a warning: Do something about the uninvited guests or the birds "were going in my pot." The incursions stopped. But Stone, a retired Los Angeles County librarian who lives northwest of Watts, shook her head in exasperation as she recalled the incident. "I've lived here for 50 years," she said. "All of a sudden, there's an influx of chickens. You're not supposed to have chickens in the city." For many, the image of South...

   International Respect for Chickens Day, May 4, celebrates the devotion of hens to their chicks and deplores the suffering of motherless chickens on factory farms. In this photo, Ruby fosters Ivy, a chick rescued from a factory farm in North Carolina to live in a safe and loving home. (PRNewsFoto/United Poultry Concerns)MACHIPONGO, VA UNITED STATES May is International Respect for Chickens Month MACHIPONGO, Va., April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- InternationalRespect for Chickens Day, May 4, celebrates the dignity, beauty and life ofchickens and protests against the bleakness of their lives in farmingoperations. Launched by United Poultry Concerns in 2005,...

First Lt. Michael Falk, Troop A, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, currently attached to 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., rescues a chick while poultry farmers load 6,000 of them onto trucks in Hawr Rajab, April 27. The chicks were purchased by the Baghdad-7 ePRT to help jump-start chicken farms in the area, which have suffered in recent years due to insurgent activity. Photo by Sgt. David Turner. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Two Iraqi poultry farmers received 3,000 chicks each April 27 in a bid to jump-start their industry in Hawr Rajab, a...

BAGHDAD, April 28, 2008 – Chicken farmers in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, received the jumpstart their industry needed with the arrival of 45,000 eggs, each ready for hatching. Army Capt. Benjamin Neusse, a civil military operations officer with 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, speaks with workers in the Mahmudiyah, Iraq, chicken hatchery, April 21, 2008. Photo by Army Pvt. Christopher McKenna, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. One of many economic projects initiated by Task Force Marne, revitalizing the region’s ailing poultry industry ranks as a top priority. Such initiatives...

A worker in the Mahmudiyah Chicken Hatchery sets eggs into trays April 21 to begin the incubation process. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Christopher McKenna, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH — Eight months of preparation and planning paid off when the Mahmudiyah Chicken Hatchery received the first of three shipments of eggs for incubation April 21. The first batch contained 35,000 eggs shipped to Iraq from Holland. “The purpose in bringing in eggs from Holland is that they have a faster growing rate and they’re healthier than chickens from within this area,” said Maj. Alaric...

Bird flu in one way or another is wiping out poultry in South Korea Published: Monday, 21-Apr-2008 Disease/Infection News Following the announcement by officials in South Korea of another bird flu outbreak, 5.3 million birds are expected to be culled to control the spread of the deadly virus. This latest outbreak in South Korea is the 17th case of bird flu in three weeks and is the country's fastest and biggest ever outbreak of avian influenza. Officials at the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries say that the case which tested positive for the H5N1 virus, appeared on a...

Lawyers suing Pilgrim’s Pride in Alabama said Wednesday’s roundup of undocumented employees at other company plants underscores their claims that the chicken-processing giant illegally is hiring immigrant workers to suppress wages. “Assuming that these individuals being detained are found to be in this country illegally, I think it reinforces our contention that there has been an ongoing practice of employing illegal workers at Pilgrim’s Pride,” said Jeremy Hutchinson, a Little Rock, Ark., attorney who is soliciting plaintiffs for a potential class-action suit against the company. Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s largest chicken company with more than 54,000 employees at 37 plants,...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Federal immigration authorities raided seven Mexican restaurants in four states Wednesday, arresting 56 people, including 11 accused of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. The immigrants were primarily undocumented Mexicans forced to staff the restaurants for long hours with little pay to work off smuggling fees and rent, authorities said. Ten individuals were arrested in Mentor and Willoughby in northeast Ohio, at Jalapeno Loco Mexican Restaurant and two houses, said Greg Palmore, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two face charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants and the rest face immigration violations. The arrests began at...

Federal agents began a probe into immigration violations today in Chattanooga and several other states. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along with Chattanooga police raided the Pilgrim's Pride plants in South Chattanooga this morning. They loaded vans with suspected illegal immigrants. Other agents hit Pilgrim's Pride plants in Florida and Arkansas. The probe centers around an alleged scam to provide fake identification for illegal immigrant workers. Pilgrim's Pride reportedly is cooperating in the investigation.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Chicken farming in Iraq is moving toward pre-war levels, as Coalition forces work with farmers to overcome challenges. There are about seven functioning chicken houses in the region where 3rd Battalion, 7th infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division operates, and dialogue has begun with the owners on how to increase production. One of the first areas where the unit discovered chicken houses was the community of Abu Lukah. It has four chicken houses, three of which are functioning. The first visit by the unit was at the end of January during which...

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on Wednesday announced it will close a chicken processing complex and six of its 13 distribution centers in the United States. None of the impacted facilities are in Texas. Company officials said the action was in response to what they deemed a crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry from soaring feed-ingredient costs resulting from corn-based ethanol production."Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer....

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Feb. 25, 2008 – To some, it might be laughable that the economic welfare of an entire community relies on thousands of flightless birds, but in the farming communities of southern Baghdad, chickens represent a significant way ahead. A member of the State Department’s Baghdad 7 embedded provincial reconstruction team is helping these communities establish themselves as centers of poultry production. “Some of these farmers had over 100,000 chickens at one time,” said Mike Stevens, the team’s agricultural advisor. Stevens, a native of Park Rapids, Minn., said farmers from Adwaniyah, Arab Jabour and Hawr Rajab...

This is none other than Rhode Island’s best rooster crowing contest and in America, number one contest. The applause is a cut section of the applause in the song; King Jesus is a Listening All Night Long, by the 5 blind boys’ of Alabama. The characters are, Clara the RI Hen and Joe Beak RI rooster at left bottom and Sam Loud at bottom right. Voice of contestant #1 Joe Beak is real rooster sound and contestant #2 Sam Loud voice is of o7jimmy.

Gainesville -- Officials at Mar-Jac Poultry said they were shocked to find out Thursday that federal officials suspect the company might have ties to terrorist funding. Company Vice President Doug Carnes said at least a half-dozen U.S. Customs agents spent all day Wednesday gathering financial records and charitable contribution files. They were "real nice, professional and complimentary," he said, but they didn't disclose the nature of their visit. It was only on Thursday that Carnes was alerted by company officials in Virginia as to what the agents were looking for. "I'm shocked. I'm in disbelief. I've worked for them for...

BAGHDAD — With nearly five years of war taking a toll on Iraq’s domestic poultry industry, overall chicken and egg consumption is down in the country, while 40 percent of the commercial eggs consumed in Baghdad are imported. But with recent security improvements, achieved through the cooperation of local residents and a counter-insurgency strategy implemented by Coalition Forces, an opportunity has been gained to resume production. In Mahmudiyah, an agricultural community south of the Iraqi capital, and a traditional hub of Baghdad province’s poultry industry, some of the most violence of the war effectively halted production of a variety of...

KARGULI VILLAGE, Iraq — To build a poultry-based association, American business ideas and Iraqi cultural ways will have to merge. This is especially true in the fertile Euphrates Valley, where agriculture was a fairly profitable business just a few years ago.As part of America’s armed forces of reaching out to civilian communities in an effort to reduce the hold al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgents have on the population, small units are seeking ways to improve the lives of Iraqis in their areas of responsibility. For the Rakkasans of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 187th Infantry, 101st...

The plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Tyson Foods Inc. of hiring illegal aliens to work at poultry plants are focusing on the meat producer’s relationship with the League of Latin American Citizens. The class-action suit in U. S. District Court in Eastern Tennessee claims Springdale-based Tyson Foods knowingly hired illegal aliens to work for wages below what American workers would take. It was filed in April 2002 on behalf of former Tyson workers in several states, not including Arkansas. Trial is set for March 3. The plaintiffs in Trollinger v. Tyson are chicken plant workers who said they were harmed...

US and Chinese officials recently met in Beijing for agricultural trade talks. However, the two parties failed to agree with issues regarding poultry trade. China's zero-tolerance for salmonella in raw poultry was discussed in length. "How can you produce poultry without traces of salmonella? It's killed when you cook it," said USDA's Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Mark Keenum, who led the US delegation. As for China, "They simply reaffirmed their position," he stated. On the other hand, Keenum said that the USDA is working to produce rules that would allow China to export cooked chicken products to...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the nation's chicken houses could be added to the list of potential terrorism targets. Under the department's chemical security standards, facilities with more than 1,785 gallons of propane gas could be considered high-risk. Nearly every poultry grower on the Delmarva peninsula would be affected beacause most chicken houses use propane for heat. If designated a security risk, chicken house owners would be required to complete vulnerability assessments and develop site security plans. Senators Mikulski and Cardin from Maryland and Carper from Delaware have sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael...

<p>ROANOKE, Virginia — Virginia banned all live poultry sales and shows for the rest of July following the discovery of avian flu antibodies in a flock of 54,000 turkeys on a poultry farm.</p> <p>State veterinarian Richard Wilkes issued an order Monday canceling all sales and exhibitions, Elaine Lidholm, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Tuesday. The ban remains in effect until July 30.</p>