Tiny Chicks As Festival Prizes?

In what world is it okay to offer live baby chicks as festival prizes for kids, with or without parents present, to then shove these tiny creatures into a paper sack and hand them to the children who win each game?

It's acceptable in Southwest Virginia, apparently, even though Virginia law specifically prohibits the offering of immature fowl as contest prizes.

I don't know if I'm more appalled at the horrific end so many of these chicks have probably met by now, or by the community's clear determination to pass the buck, dodge blame, divert, redirect, and name-call to avoid taking any form of responsibility for this disgusting behavior. I wrote about this is my novel "High Kill," which is currently in the hands of a literary agent. I wrote about the region-wide desensitization to abuse that mirrors that of many underdeveloped countries. I wrote about officials who try to bully and intimidate the community into keeping silent. I wrote about the community itself circling the wagons to protect offenders, regardless of the victims or severity of the crime. Well. . .do you want to see a real-life example of this happening? If so, read on.

This was the original Facebook post by my rescue, clearly showing the Virginia law that prohibits this practice. If the text is too small, the resolution of the image should be high enough to withstand enlarging your monitor display without it becoming too pixelated to read.

I shared this on my personal Facebook page, and tagged two Eastern VA activists, as well as the local sheriff and his second in command. I did make a comment initially in the post about where the heck was law enforcement. I have since edited that, but here is the response by a representative of the local sheriff's office.

Not too bad, actually. At this point, I'm just trying to show how it all escalated. I do not believe that I or anyone associated with my rescue (like Alex and Colleena) were out of line in anything we said. The entire conversation can be viewed HERE.

Then this happened. Some of the "read more" tabs could not be clicked to reveal the entire comments, because she deleted the thread while I was taking screenshots. No concern at all about the animals. Just wanting to nitpick and weasel out of the community having to take any responsibility at all.

Then this, which is not so bad still, but another example of, "community isn't to blame, so let's just dodge this whole bullet by saying it didn't happen and making sure we all get a pass for it anyway."

Then THIS happened. I did not screenshot the whole conversation because--quite honestly--I started effing with this guy and getting a little silly. I tend to bat Facebook trolls around like a cat with a toy, and y'all don't want to see that. But it's on my rescue's FB page, if you follow the link above. Different post, but it's there unless he deletes his comments. Seriously, though. . .he's raking me over the coals because I did "do something," at the same time he's berating me for not doing something. Hello? Any critical thinking skills left in Appalachia?

Shortly after that, a member of law enforcement, a high-ranking member of the sheriff's office, said. . .well, I'll let you read it for yourselves, and see if you feel his outrage was warranted, or if maybe--just maybe--there's an "Untouchables" vibe going on here.

As I was composing this post, another comment appeared on my Facebook feed. This one has a slightly different tone. It proves I'm not alone in my opinion about the problems here, but this person was very brave in speaking up this way. I'm sure she will face repercussions. I know I certainly will. If I don't end up dead from all the beans I spilled in "High Kill," I'll end up suffering in one way or another. The Mountain Mafia will see to that.