Prison bird program inhumane, group claims

Apparently there’s a Birdman of Walla Walla …

Prison isn’t just grueling for people, apparently.

The Humane Society of the United States this week filed a complaint with Washington’s prison system, saying that hundreds of young pheasants died recently of heat and neglect in a bird-raising program at the state penitentiary at Walla Walla.

An inmate’s relative contacted the animal-rights group to report that approximately a thousand birds had died “of overcrowding, heat exposure and improper care,” according to HSUS.

The pheasants are reportedly used by Fish and Wildlife to stock land for hunting, or as HSUS termed it, “released into the landscape solely as living targets for shooters.”

The relative also reported that the birds are fed garbage and have their beaks cut off, apparently to prevent the stressed birds from pecking each other. The group maintains that such inhumane conditions will “horribly undermine” efforts to reform prisoners and instill empathy.

The state Department of Corrections doesn’t dispute that many birds died, although it maintains that’s not unusual in wild-bird-rearing programs. A spokeswoman, Maria Peterson, said that the operation gets 100,000 eggs, 82,000 of which typically hatch, and loses about 1,000 birds a week during the 20-week growth cycle.

“We lose fewer birds than most operations,” largely due to the amount of inmate labor available, said Peterson. High winds, hail or heat increase the deaths, she said, despite a shaded area and overhead mists.

For pheasant safety, the agency said in a written statement, “their beaks are clipped and blinders are attached during processing. The beaks grow back and the blinders are removed prior to their release. The processes for de-beaking and blinder attachment strictly follow industry standards.”

UW putting its money where its money is …

Some records-request sleuthing by the Washington Policy Center’s Jason Mercier reveals that the University of Washington has hired a $175-an-hour consultant to help win legislative approval for millions of dollars in public financing for a major overhaul of Husky Stadium.

Olympia consultant Robert Longman’s contract, originally for $10,000 last fall, has been extended twice. It now runs through mid-2009, with a cap of $50,000. Longman, a former staffer on the House revenue committee (now called the finance committee), is “provid(ing) legislative drafting and fiscal analysis” related to the university’s request for state dollars to help with the $300 million remodel.

Brown, Chopp protest Seattle P-I op-ed piece

In an op-ed piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, and House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, take umbrage at the suggestion that state-employee support for Gov. Chris Gregoire is driven by pay increases in recent state-employee contracts.

The two lawmakers point out that the law allowing state workers to collectively bargain for pay and benefits dates back to 2002 – two years before Gregoire was elected – and say it has improved government efficiency and reformed the state’s arcane civil service rules.

“It’s no great surprise that working people support Gregoire,” they wrote. “That’s because she’s honest about the important role that government services play in the lives of Washingtonians and because she understands what it takes to ensure the greatest efficiency and effectiveness of those services.”

If workers and their unions back Gregoire, they maintain, “it’s because they share a basic philosophy about employment issues, not because they are using the campaign to buy a better contract.”

Tim Eyman met a pieman

Re-live the Tim Eyman-pied-in-the-face moment in an online game.

The left-leaning group Fuse has put up an online game in which you can throw pies at a bobbing-and-weaving Eyman. (For the link, see my blog at www.eyeonolympia.com.)

Eyman, an antitax activist who now makes his living as a paid promoter of ballot measures, was actually attacked by two pie-wielding men while filing signatures at the state capitol in June 2000.

The men fled, and Eyman was left covered with an unidentified red fruit filling and with a black eye.

Washingtonians: There are more of us …

The state’s population continues to grow, but slower than in recent years, according to the state budget office.

There are now more than 6.5 million Washingtonians, up about 100,000 from a year earlier.

And yes, we held onto our second-city status, again narrowly beating out Tacoma.

The view, and you …

Olympia has some fascinating local politics, like the current brouhaha over whether it’s useful to send nations like Pakistan annual formal letters to announce that Olympia, population 44,800, remains a nuclear-free zone.

Among the other long-running fights: whether to lift building-height restrictions around the city’s Puget Sound shoreline. This has given rise to a “Don’t Wall Off the Waterfront” campaign, with standing-room-only city council meetings.

Now, an Olympia man named Robert Ahlschwede wants you to care about Olympia’s building heights, on the theory that the state capitol and its views belong to all Washingtonians.

“The capitol is not Olympia’s alone, but belongs to all of us, no matter where we live in Washington state,” he said in a recent mass e-mailing, urging people to contact Olympia’s city council on the matter.

Press releases to file under “Huh?”

From the Department of Natural Resources this week:

“Subject: BNR Approves Hamma Hamma Balds NAP”

Duly noted.