McDaniel supports animal-cruelty bill
Posted on Saturday, October 11, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/239870/
FAYETTEVILLE — Passing a “common sense” animal-cruelty bill is one of the most important issues that will come before the state Legislature in the next session, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel told about 200 people Friday at a breakfast meeting of the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas.
“I hope, I believe, I pray that we have all these diverse interests come together before the Legislature meets,” he said, referring to concerns from agricultural and animal-welfare groups about a proposal.
At the end of his speech at the Clarion hotel, McDaniel said he would be in Yellville today with a group of “foreign dignitaries” for the annual Turkey Trot Festival, which usually features an unsanctioned drop of live turkeys from low-flying airplanes.
“Turkeys are exempt from my animal-cruelty legislation,” McDaniel said, joking with the crowd. “And besides, I hear they can fly.”
State Rep. Monty Davenport, D-Yellville, agreed.
“These are wild-strain turkeys that can fly,” he said. “They’re used to flying up in the trees at night to roost and to get away from predators.... These aren’t frozen Butterballs. These are turkeys that can and do fly.”
“The legislation that they’re working on right now is for dogs, cats and horses,” said Gabe Holmstrom, McDaniel’s press secretary. “They call them companion animals.”
Davenport said the turkey drop is similar to a greased-pig chase. Children try to catch the dropped turkeys to keep them as pets, which Davenport did as a boy.
The two-day Turkey Trot Festival ends today and has had a turkey drop from a plane for decades. The television sitcom WKRP IN Cincinnati spoofed the festival with a turkey drop of its own in 1978.
Animal-welfare activists got involved after the 1979 festival, when the regional director of the Humane Society of the United States wrote letters to city and state officials accusing the Yellville Chamber of Commerce of violating several animal cruelty laws, including subjecting an animal to “cruel mistreatment,” according to an article in the Arkansas Democrat.
Protesters showed up the next year and complained to the Federal Aviation Administration, which temporarily suspended the license of the pilot that year — then-Marion County Judge Gay Rorie — for flying a plane inside the city below the minimum 300-foot altitude set by the FAA.
In 1981, two pilots made separate runs, and two turkeys died when they hit the pavement, according to an article from The Associated Press. Since then, the drops were moved to the edge of town so pilots would be in compliance with FAA altitude regulations.
In 1990, after national attention from animal-welfare activists and the news media — including The National Enquirer and The Wall Street Journal — the Yellville Chamber of Commerce said it would no longer sponsor the turkey drop. That was the first year of the unauthorized flyover, according to the Arkansas Gazette.
Ever since, anonymous pilots have flown over the festivals, dropping turkeys.
This year, McDaniel is bringing out-of-state politicians to Yellville, where Davenport will play host.
McDaniel knows the group through the Aspen Institute Fellowship, which fosters “valuebased leadership.” The dignitaries include Lewis Reed, a St. Louis alderman; state Sen. Derek Schmidt, R-Kansas; state Sen. Bill Baroni, R-New Jersey; New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram; Kris Mayes, Arizona corporation commissioner; and state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, RNew Mexico.
Holmstrom said the group had expressed an interest in attending the festival after hearing McDaniel talk about it.
McDaniel praised state Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, for introducing a bill in 2007 that would have made first-offense animal cruelty a felony in Arkansas. That bill passed the Senate, but died in the House.
This year, McDaniel is working on a version of an animalcruelty bill. Madison said she may support McDaniel’s bill or write a new version of the bill she introduced last year.
Forty-five states consider animal-cruelty cases as felonies, on a varying basis, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In some states, a first offense can be considered a misdemeanor. In other states, it’s based on the severity of cases. Under Arkansas Code 5-62-101, the crime is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $ 1, 000.