In brief: Activist Cindy Sheehan cancels festival speech
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan canceled her scheduled visit today to a peace festival in Tonasket, Wash., an organizer said on Friday.
“She has to be in Washington, D.C., on Sunday and didn’t pencil in enough time,” said Jere Gillespie, whose husband, Rick, is president of the Okanogan chapter of the national Veterans for Peace.
Gillespie said a spokesperson for Sheehan called late Friday to cancel and offer regrets. She was to have flown into Wenatchee on Friday evening and continued on to Tonasket, about 20 miles from the Canadian border, by car.
The round-trip would have meant 30 hours of travel for 30 minutes in Tonasket, Gillespie said.
Sheehan, whose son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in 2004, rose to prominence when she camped outside President Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch in August 2005.
In Tonasket, she was to have spoken to the fourth annual Okanogan Peace Festival with fellow peace activists Craig and Cindy Corrie. The Corries’ daughter, Rachel, was killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003, while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home.
The Corries will speak at today’s event as scheduled, Gillespie said.
– Kevin Graman
15 reptiles seized from county home
Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service confiscated 15 reptiles Friday from a northwest Spokane County residence after reports of dangerous reptiles and dead animals on the property.
The seized reptiles included an American alligator that had been kept in a bathtub and two rattlesnakes.
Traci L. McDonald, 42, was cited for harboring and/or owning a dangerous reptile without a license.
It’s illegal to own venomous snakes, crocodiles and alligators in Spokane County unless they are registered.
SCRAPS initially discovered McDonald’s “Reptile Rescue” operation at 23012 W. Four Mound Road because of complaints about dead animals on the property.
Officer David Daley responded last week and found several dead reptiles, including a 16-foot python, four tortoises and two snapping turtles. He also saw dead chickens and a dead calf. Two alligators had recently been buried there.
In addition, Daley reported reptiles being housed in unsanitary and potentially cruel conditions.
McDonald had until Monday to remove the dangerous reptiles from Spokane County or register them. McDonald killed one of the rattlesnakes over the weekend, but turned the remainder over to SCRAPS this week.
The seized alligator and remaining reptiles were taken Friday by the Monroe, Wash.,-based Washington Serpentarium, which operates a reptile education center.
– Amy Cannata