SUNDAY
- donbrooks777
- 3 days ago
- 27 min read
New BLOG – Great ARTICLES
SUNDAY 11-[09]-25
SPIRITUAL:
Six years. Three trials. One courageous woman.
The hearing is over, and Päivi Räsänen once again stood firm before Finland’s Supreme Court.
Calm, composed, and full of grace, she spoke not only in her own defence but for every believer’s right to live and speak the truth without fear.
For six long years, Päivi has endured interrogations, public attacks, and trials that would exhaust anyone. Yet, as the doors of the courthouse in Helsinki opened, she carried herself as though she had already heard the only verdict that matters: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
After the hearing, I had the privilege of meeting Päivi face-to-face, along with my friends and colleagues, Agustín, Alexandra, Andrés, and Martin. We came on behalf of you — carrying your prayers, your signatures, and your words of encouragement from more than 165,000 people around the world.
When we told her about the global movement standing behind her, Päivi was deeply moved and thankful.
Inside the courtroom, Päivi spoke with the same calm conviction that has marked every stage of this long ordeal.
While legal arguments unfolded around her, she reflected on the deeper sorrow of seeing the Bible opened not in reverence but as evidence to be weighed, saying:
“It is difficult to overstate how surreal it is to see my faith, my conscience, and the Bible itself placed on trial in a democratic nation in my own country.”
Supported by her legal team at ADF International, Päivi wasn’t only defending herself — she was standing for the right of every person to share their faith without fear.
Her words were full of grace and strength. She spoke about the Christian calling to speak the truth in love, reminding all who listened that her message was never meant to condemn but to bear witness to God’s truth and mercy.
Later, she told us something that stayed with me:
“Even though this process has been long and there have been dark moments, my main experience is that I have received much more joy than troubles. God has been so good to turn bad things to good.”
As I listened, I thought of how God so often takes what was meant for harm and turns it into something that glorifies Him. The Prosecutor General may have tried to put Scripture on trial — but God is using this moment to awaken courage and faith around the world.
The hearing has now concluded, and Finland’s Supreme Court will deliver its judgment in the months ahead, likely in the spring of 2026.
If Finland’s highest court upholds her previous two acquittals, it will set a precedent that protects every believer’s right to live out their faith without fear.
But if it does not, we will see more cases of believers prosecuted for so-called “hate speech” simply for sharing the hope of the Gospel.
Yet even then, light will shine in the darkness. God’s Word has always outlasted its opponents, quietly working through hearts that the world cannot reach. The truth of God’s Word will endure, and those who speak it in love will not stand alone, for the Lord Himself goes with them.
Thank you, truly, for standing with Päivi. Your prayers, your signatures, and your messages have lifted her spirit — and they’ve shown Finland’s leaders that people of faith will not be silent when truth and freedom are threatened.
CitizenGO will continue to stand with Päivi, and with every man and woman who faces punishment for speaking the truth in love.
With thanks, as always, for your support,
Christopher Joyce and
The CitizenGO team
P.S. Thank you for standing with Päivi through your prayers, signatures, and messages of support. Your encouragement has reminded her that she is upheld not only by God’s grace but by the prayers and love of believers around the world. If you are able, please consider making a financial contribution today so we can continue supporting others who, like Päivi, face trial and pressure for living out their faith.
The radical globalists and woke elites want to erase our values—but together, we stand strong. CitizenGO is a movement of millions around the world, fighting every day to defend life, family, and freedom against those who seek to undermine them. We are faithful, so we will never quit.
Will you start a monthly donation to sustain CitizenGO's work to protect our rights and freedoms from the radical left?
The CitizenGo Team
CANADIAN:
A new Canadian bill would punish those who deny residential indigenous schools' deaths claims
Bill C-254 would give a maximum two-year jail sentence for people who deny or downplay claims that there were mass graves at Indian Residential Schools.
OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – A new bill looks to give jail time to people who engage in so-called “Denialism” and question the media and government narrative surrounding Canada’s “Indian Residential School system,” that there are mass graves despite no evidence to support this claim.
The private members’ Bill C-254, An Act To Amend The Criminal Code, introduced by New Democrat MP Leah Gazan, would impose stiff penalties on deniers, saying the bill is needed to “end Residential School denialism.”
Gazan said that her bill is for all “Residential School survivors and our families.”
She said that so-called “denialism is spreading, twisting facts, denying genocide and reigniting harm,” adding, “It is not only hurtful, it is dangerous.”
Bill C-254, should it become law, would give a maximum two-year jail sentence for people who “other than in private conversation willfully promote hatred against Indigenous people by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian Residential School system in Canada or by misrepresenting facts relating to it.”
The bill does read that exceptions are given for people who “establish the statements communicated were true” or if the statements are “relevant to any subject of public interest.”
This is not the first time Gazan has tried to get such a bill passed. A bill she previously brought forth that sought to criminalize the denial of the unproven claim that the residential school system, once operating in Canada, was a “genocide,” lapsed after an election was called.
Last year, retired Manitoba judge Brian Giesbrecht said Canadians are being “deliberately deceived by their own government” after blasting the former Trudeau government for “actively pursuing” a policy that blames the Catholic Church for the unfounded “deaths and secret burials” of Indigenous children.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, John Carpay, founder and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), blasted what he said are “false” and “virtue-signalling” displays of “truth and reconciliation” goals pushed by the federal government and media when it comes to indigenous “land acknowledgments.”
In 2021 and 2022, the mainstream media ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some Canadian residential schools. The reality is, after four years, there have been no mass graves discovered at residential schools.
However, as the claims went unfounded, since the spring of 2021, over 120 churches, most of them Catholic, many of them on indigenous lands that serve the local population, have been burned to the ground, vandalized, or defiled in Canada.
Recent polling has shown that over two-thirds of Canadians want some kind of proof of the “unmarked graves” before believing the claims that Indigenous children were secretly murdered and buried at residential schools by Catholic clergy.
Life Site News
TRUMP:
Chaos Erupts LIVE On Fox News After Show Host Drops NUKE:
Alisha Rodriguez
Greg Gutfeld has had enough of what he sees as Jessica Tarlov’s spin. During a fiery segment on Fox News’s “The Five” on Wednesday, the co-host unleashed a blistering attack on his left-leaning panellist over her comments on the deadly shooting at a Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
The confrontation came after a gunman opened fire at the Dallas ICE center, killing two migrants and wounding up to four others. Authorities identified the shooter as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, who later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to federal investigators, the bullets used in the attack contained anti-ICE messaging — clear evidence, the FBI said, that the crime was politically motivated and targeted immigration enforcement.
As the panel debated the implications, Tarlov attempted to play down the left-wing angle and other recent acts of leftist violence by citing a study that claimed much of the political violence in America actually comes from the right.
That set off Gutfeld. He snapped that the study Tarlov was quoting had already been “funded by an Antifa moron” and “was discredited by The Federalist,” adding that it had since been scrubbed from public view. He then pivoted to the larger issue of what he calls dangerous leftist rhetoric.
“We say people are stupid, we say people are wrong, but we don’t say they’re evil. That is YOUR game!” he shouted at Tarlov, visibly frustrated.
Gutfeld went on to argue that violent rhetoric from the far left has helped push unstable people into committing acts of terrorism. “A person can be mentally ill, and you can be guiding him to that place in his life. That is how brainwashing works!” he said.
The exchange grew even more tense as Tarlov attempted to interject.
TRANSCRIPT:
GUTFELD: “Your rationalization of both sides; since Kirk’s death, there is no both sides!”
TARLOV: “Why did the DOJ take down the study that showed how much right-wing extremism…”
GUTFELD: “What study was that? Which one? The one in The Economist that was sponsored by a group run by a guy in Antifa!? A study that has been discredited by the Federalist?
“You’re walking down a really bad alley right now!”
Jessica Tarlov tried again to defend her point, but Gutfeld continued hammering. “Jessica, I did the deep dive on that study. Okay, that study was authored by a project by a guy who says he was Antifa. That is why that thing has been scrubbed!
“It’s really simple: you label someone a fascist or a racist or a Nazi, it makes you free to attack them. It’s been the ideology from the start.”
When Tarlov tried to break in again, Gutfeld shot back, “No, no, no! Let me talk!”
TARLOV: “I’m enjoying this.”
GUTFELD: “You won’t be for long.”
Gutfeld then tied the debate to a larger pattern of left-wing violence, citing incidents against ICE, conservative figures like Charlie Kirk, and even attacks on media outlets. “Why pick ICE? Why pick Charlie Kirk? Why target TV stations and put bombs under FOX trucks? Why vandalize memorials? Why kill kids in Catholic schools?” he asked rhetorically.
“Two things can be true,” he concluded. “A person can be mentally ill, and you can be guiding him to that place in his life. That is how brainwashing works!”
By the end of the segment, the panel’s split over political violence was stark. For Gutfeld, the Dallas ICE shooting was not an isolated incident but part of a dangerous climate being fueled by increasingly extreme rhetoric on the left — and he made sure viewers heard his warning loud and clear.
FOX News
NEWS MAX:
Breaking News from Newsmax.com
The News MAX
GLOBAL:
Woman Tells Her Story of Being Kidnapped at 4 and Growing Up with Monkeys in the Jungle:
A woman born in rural Colombia is telling her life story of how, after being kidnapped from her home as a child, she spent years alone with capuchin monkeys in the jungle, learning their ways to survive.
Decades later, with the help of her daughter, she is assembling the fragmented puzzle pieces of her memory into a series of books.
Today, Marina Chapman lives in West Yorkshire, England, with her husband, retired scientist John Chapman. The couple has two daughters, Vanessa and Joanna.
Ms. Chapman believes she “should be 73” by now, but does not know for sure what year she was born. She has, however, retained her earliest memory of being stolen from her home at the age of 4.
‘I Didn’t Do Anything But Cry’
“Somebody came from behind and covered my face with a cloth. It was so smelly, strong,” Ms. Chapman told The Epoch Times. “I became very weak. I heard some children crying, and I felt they were behind my back. But I was very quiet.”
Ms. Chapman recalls a “long, speedy” drive, after which her kidnappers dumped her in the jungle. It was nighttime, she was alone and confused, but she clung to hope that the same people who left her there would return. They did not.
“I think I fell asleep a little bit,” she said. “Maybe I woke up with some light, sunshine. I woke up and it wasn't quiet. I don’t know if I was calling my mama, I was calling for somebody to come for me because I had no idea where I was.”
Ms. Chapman says that she then sat down and cried. Suddenly, she saw a curious monkey. The creature approached but did not touch her and eventually left.
This is the earliest known photograph of Ms. Chapman from when she was 17 years old. Courtesy of Marina Chapman
“The problem is I didn’t do very much,” Ms. Chapman said. “They got bored with me. They went away because I didn’t do anything but cry.”
She recalled finding a pond with “lovely clean water” from which she drank, using leaves to scoop the water into her mouth. There was no food for “some time,” until she noticed that the monkeys had a scheme: they would sneak into jungle-dwelling humans’ homes as they slept and steal fruit.
“One day, I realized one of the monkeys was carrying too much,” she said. “He dropped a banana on the floor, and I caught it. ... I had to eat very quickly because the monkey came to me and took it away.”
Surviving in the Jungle
As days turned into weeks, then months, Ms. Chapman claims she started understanding the monkeys’ unique language. A loud shriek alerted them to danger, while some whistle sounds signaled fighting between the monkeys themselves. A ticking sound of “Tttttt” accompanied grooming.
The monkeys would check on her, Ms. Chapman said, but it took a long time before they would touch her. The first was an adolescent capuchin.
“I think he was coming from the tip of the tree or something,” she said. “He sat on my shoulders and it was a comforting moment. He started to check my ears, my nose ... just looking for something. Gradually, the young ones got closer to me.
“I tried to climb trees. I fell. I tried many times. ... I just didn’t want to stay down there because it was solitary. They used to go to the trees, so I tried to join them. It took me a while.”
The more time passed in the jungle, the less time seemed to matter to Ms. Chapman. She learned to scale trees and find food; survival was paramount. She remembers it took “a long time” before she caught sight of her changed reflection in a piece of broken mirror on the jungle floor.
“I saw my face, and I was shocked about it because I thought I looked like a monkey,” she said. “My clothes, they disappeared, because the monkeys pulled the material bit by bit. ... it was humid and hot all the time, day or night. I just had no clothes and I didn’t care, because I never felt cold.”
Meeting the Monkey Grandpa
Ms. Chapman remembers forming a special connection with one member of the monkey troupe, an older male patriarch she nicknamed Grandpa. “You had to respect him,” she said. “If he raised his eyebrows, we were in trouble.”
She had learned to copy the monkeys’ foraging behaviour, but one day, she recalled, her hunger got the better of her and she gorged on a poisonous fruit. She believes Grandpa dragged her to a nearby pool of muddy water and forced her to purge by pulling her into the water.
“I just remember the pain. I just thought, ‘I’m going to die.’ I drank so much water. ... I think I vomited,” she said, recalling Grandpa’s presence, “He didn’t do anything; he stood there, went back to his place. The look in his eyes, I just realized I can trust him.”
Leaving the Jungle
Ms. Chapman guesses she remained in the jungle with the monkeys for six or seven years. During this time, she would sometimes spot armed hunters through the trees and hide, hearing the “horrible screaming sounds” coming from the sacks into which they would stuff stolen animals, fearing they would do the same to her.
One day, she spotted a young woman who seemed to be “a nice person” alongside the hunters and decided to make herself known.
Ms. Chapman said: “I just walked up gradually, moved toward them, and tried to hold her hand. ... She brought me to this gentleman, and this gentleman wrapped me and put me in the truck with the animals. ... but it was really brutal. I felt insecure. I wanted to go back to the monkeys.”
Inside the truck, Ms. Chapman claims she tried to befriend a young monkey in a box that was screaming in fear. She recalls an hours-long journey with nothing to drink until flashing lights and heavy traffic indicated that they'd reached a city. She remembers being hustled out of the van to the house of a “huge woman,” who grabbed her arm and exchanged money with the hunter.
Courtesy of Marina Chapman
In a 2013 interview with The Guardian, Ms. Chapman explained that she had been sold to a brothel, where she was beaten, but managed to run away before she was sold to a punter for the first time.
She ended up living on the streets, where the children of the neighborhood would mock her for not being able to talk properly.
While hungry and homeless, she found comfort in the company of street gangs “because they were like monkeys.” She stole food to feed herself and was eventually picked up by the neipolice while sleeping on a park bench.
“They asked about family, mother, parents. I said I hadn’t any,” she said. “I talked to them about the monkeys. They laughed, and couldn’t believe it. They put me into a bed at night, and in the morning I woke up and the police took me for breakfast in a local restaurant ... then they let me go.”
Ms. Chapman began knocking on doors because she had already seen children doing some little jobs in the ghbourhood where they also got food to eat; she too found a family in the neighbourhood who agreed to take her on as a domestic aide in return for room and board. But it turned out that they were known criminals, and Ms. Chapman became a slave. Safe refuge evaded her until a neighbour stepped in, offering to send the teen by plane to live with her daughter in Bogotá.
It was in Bogotá with her new, adopted family that Ms. Chapman chose her own name and learned to be civilized.
“I didn’t want to wear clothes,” she said. “I had to watch people to copy them, how to pick up a fork, how to eat food in a proper way. ... I had no discipline, no good behavior. I don’t know how they managed, really, my parents who adopted me.”
A Family Project
Ms. Chapman’s adoptive family emigrated to England, where she fell in love and made her permanent home. Marriage, two children, and a successful career as a chef followed.
Together with her youngest daughter, Vanessa Ferero, 28, a film score composer, Ms. Chapman is compiling her extraordinary memories into a series of books. The first, “The Girl With No Name,” became a New York Times bestseller in 2013.
Marina Chapman with her daughter Vanessa Ferero. Courtesy of Marina Chapman
Ms. Ferero told The Epoch Times: “Many don’t believe it, which is normal. I don’t think I would, either, if I heard someone say that their dad had been raised by kangaroos.”
Talking about the book, Ms. Ferero said, “It was a family project more than anything. Mom always had snapshot memories; they weren’t really tied together until during the years we interviewed. We all went back to Colombia and we did a load of interviews, found the people that Mom spoke about, and hung it together. By the end of two years, we both looked at it and it kind of looked like a book ... so we released it.”
They “weren’t out to prove anything,” said Ms. Ferero, but were simply hoping to make sense of the past, and perhaps reconnect Ms. Chapman with her biological family.
As the story continues to unfold, a second book, “Out of the Wild,” is coming to fruition. Ms. Chapman still dreams of reconnecting with the monkeys she grew up with, if they are still alive, and wonders what would come of a reunion.
“I do think about them,” Ms. Chapman said. “I think about it, if I see them, they will recognize me.”
Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
The EPOCH Times
Martin Armstrong
Some of you may recall my late friend, Rick Stout, who was always trying to persuade me to pay attention to Martin Armstrong. Well, I finally did check him out. Depending on who you ask, he has a fabulous track record in predicting future world events of consequence.
Now, comes PB with the following, linked to an interview with Armstrong, which takes on a VERY grim view of soon-to-occur world events in the eyes of Armstrong. If you search the internet for info on Armstrong, you will find two competing points of view. First, a negative one from Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Armstrong. A positive presentation on Armstrong is attached as a .pdf document that I found online. It appears to me to have been written by A.I.. I say that because of the stupid grammatical and spelling errors. See attached.
Now, as for the following from PB, I watched both the short and long presentations below. I don’t regret watching the long version; but, I remain a bit skeptical. I can see, I think, where Tucker Carlson gets some of his material. Also, I would like to point out that Armstrong seems to contradict PB’s assessment of Putin. Armstrong states that if pushed into a corner with no apparent escape, Putin would “push the button” and nuke the rest of the world because … well…. Why not? No Christian would ever start a nuclear war and might even think twice before retaliating in defence with nukes.
Bottom line, Armstrong thinks we are heading toward a definite WWIII. His argument is cogent at least as presented from his point of view. My trust is still in God. I also believe that Trump is more resourceful and independent than Armstrong apparently attributes to him. We will see.
Thanks to PB for the following.
Dave
From: Patrick Subject: Fw: Martin Armstrong
I'm sending this to you again. You may have skipped the full length interview because it's 90 min. long. OK. Then please listen to the last 15 minutes (starting at the 1 hr. 12 min. mark). It includes some smart advice for filing your tax returns (I say this to lure you into listening to the rest).
.pb
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Patrick
Subject: Martin Armstrong: re coming wars
I strongly recommend the 1.5-hour interview
A full-length 1 hour, 27 min. (above)
13-minute clip below
David Strock
Patrick Bestall
Patrick Bestall’s INPUT:
#1.
More on the Ontario – Truck Driving Scam
https://www.junonews.com/p/two-men-convicted-in-massive-ontario?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
#2.
FLASH TRAFFIC 10:54 PM EST.
– POKROVSK HAS FALLEN
- RUSSIA TAKES FINAL FORTIFIED CITY
FLASH TRAFFIC – URGENT – 10:54 PM EST – The city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine has fallen to the Russian Army. The Ukrainian Army defending Pokrovsk utterly collapsed.
Zelensky has been notified that the city is lost.
Pokrovsk was the final fortified city all the way to the Dnieper River.
The scalable map below shows the region:
As Pokrovsk is set to fall, Ukraine must choose to fight or save troops [Now FALLEN]
KYIV — Ukrainian forces are still battling desperately to maintain their foothold in the besieged eastern city of Pokrovsk, even as debate mounts over whether they should tactically retreat — a move that could save lives but also deliver a propaganda victory to Russia.
Ukraine has held out against Russia’s advance toward Pokrovsk for nearly two years and is more reluctant than ever to cede territory to Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin urges the White House to pressure Kyiv into a deal to give up the entire Donetsk region.
Pokrovsk has now FALLEN!
The HAL TURNER
RADIO SHOW
#3.
Two men convicted in massive Ontario truck-driver training scam
Gurvinder Singh, 69, and Gurpreet Singh, 37, have been convicted and sentenced in Ontario for defrauding dozens of aspiring commercial truck drivers, most of them new immigrants.
Gurvinder Singh, 69, and Gurpreet Singh, 37, have been convicted and sentenced in Ontario for defrauding dozens of aspiring commercial truck drivers, most of them new immigrants, by running unlicensed schools that ignored provincial safety standards.
The two men, who are not related, were found guilty by a jury after a five-week trial in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice earlier this year. Each received a conditional sentence of two years less a day, to be served under house arrest with additional restrictions.
“There is no question that the planning of the fraud was perpetrated by the offenders,” the presiding justice wrote, describing them as “masterminds” who exploited the high regard they held within their community.
Court records show the pair and several alleged accomplices operated fraudulent, non-compliant truck-driving schools that defrauded nearly 100 victims — most of them newcomers from India. Students paid between $4,000 and $5,000 for what they believed was proper training, but instead received unlicensed instruction that skipped mandatory hours for air brakes, vehicle inspections and highway driving.
Gurvinder Singh, described in court as a longtime figure in Ontario’s trucking industry, immigrated to Canada from India in 2002 and later became a citizen. With no prior criminal record, he worked as a commercial truck driver before launching the unlicensed operation.
Gurpreet Singh, 37, came to Canada as an international student and also had no prior convictions. Both men were found to have misled vulnerable newcomers seeking stable jobs in the trucking sector, one of Ontario’s largest employers of immigrants.
Although the men arranged licensing tests and offered free make-up lessons to students who failed, the judge said their efforts did not excuse the fraud, which deprived trainees of proper safety instruction and put the public at risk.
The judge cited aggravating factors including the scheme’s duration, its nearly 100 victims, the use of forged documents and bribes, and the offenders’ breach of community trust.
Each must serve their term under house arrest, complete 200 hours of community service, avoid any truck-driver training activity, and comply with supervision, counselling and DNA orders.
According to 2023 figures from the Ontario Provincial Police, transport-truck collisions in the province reached their highest level in a decade. National data from Transport Canada show a similar trend, with 1,964 fatalities recorded in 2023 — the most in 10 years.
JUNO News
#4.
Turning Point USA scandal
One of Charlie Kirk’s last company-wide directives was to carry out a DOGE-style audit at Turning Points USA. He’d confided that there were significant money problems, possible embezzlement, and fraud. He wanted to get to the bottom of it. Here’s the memo he sent to staff just 8 days before he was assassinated. (12 min)
.pb
Charlie Kirk’s Shocking Memo as Turning Point Faces Increased Scrutiny
Charlie Kirk’s shocking memo before his untimely death
One of Charlie Kirk’s last company-wide directives was to carry out a DOGE-style audit at Turning Points USA. He’d confided that there were significant money problems, possible embezzlement, and fraud.
He wanted to get to the bottom of it. Here’s the memo he sent to staff just 8 days before he was assassinated.
This is a significant revelation – that staff at TPUSA have cancelled the audit which Charlie Kirk sought just days before his murder. People feigning religiosity while exploiting it for personal profit is no new thing, besides the Israel factor in all of this. The gospels give an account of the normally peaceful Jesus driving the “moneychangers” out of the temple in Jerusalem for this very thing. Then there are other New Testament accounts of people in the church also engaging in it.
Thus, scripture says to put your trust in God always, but not in men. Here’s an interesting look at this Sean Feucht guy, who is mixed up with TPUSA and his money-grubbing ways:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euc67DnxRJo&t=1130s The aforementioned video is from a Christian ministry in California called Good Fight Ministries.
They, unfortunately, like so many of my fellow Christians, are under the influence of Zionism and confusing the blessing of Abraham with the modern state of Israel, also hostile toward Candace Owens for her unacceptance of the U.S. as a vassal state of Israel, but nobody’s perfect, I guess.
The video on Sean Feucht is good. Also, intriguing looks in other older videos at the decadent influence of rock music and other pop music on American culture, which, though I’ve wailed that stuff on my Fender Strat many times, is honestly quite true.
.pb
Thank you, Donna
Donna Warren
#5.
Ostriches Executed for No Good Reason. What can we learn from this?
If you have sick animals, particularly birds, the message is do not call your local veterinarian, do not seek medical treatment, as the vet will be required to report Avian influenza cases to the state governments.
In poultry and livestock Facebook groups, some people are speaking the quiet bit out loud now: do not seek help from professionals when your birds get an infectious disease. That is, unless you want all of your birds “culled” and your farm quarantined.
Instead, people with chickens who are sick are letting the infectious disease run its course, using biosecurity to stop the spread, then breeding the strong birds to create a healthier next generation. This is being done without publicity, without the “hindrance” of health authorities, without hatchery involvement, but in backyard flocks everywhere.
Perhaps it is time to consider other options, such as breeding H5N1-resistant poultry strains?
Yes, there actually already are disease-resistant poultry strains. Research has shown that certain chicken breeds possess genetic traits that make them more resilient to various diseases. This resistance is a polygenic trait, involving multiple genes that confer protection against pathogens.
.pb
DETAILS BELOW
On Friday, “professional marksmen” in Canada gunned down almost 400 ostriches. Birds that were clearly disease-free, just more victims of the Canadian government’s totalitarian overreach. I- “the truckers rally.”
As most of you know, Robert and I have a soft spot for ratites, which is the family of flightless birds that lack a sternal keel (as did dinosaurs) that ostriches belong to. In fact, our pet emu is another member of that ancient lineage of birds. There are only five groups of ratites left in the world (ostriches, emus, kiwis, cassowaries, and Rheas). They have a special place in the animal kingdom. Ratites may be the closest living relatives to the dinosaurs and truly are fascinating.
The ancestors of modern ratites originated in the Northern Hemisphere (Laurasia) during the late Early Cretaceous, approximately 115-105 million years ago.
The oldest undisputed fossils of modern forms, such as ostriches, are from the Miocene of Africa and are about 20 million years old. These birds should be cherished; they are the living heritage of the ancient past.
In truth, Ostriches are sweet, goofy birds- who are times, a bit hormonal, but they are beloved by those who choose to be their keepers in captivity, as are emus.
Our emu is a cherished member of our family. I feel honoured to be her caretaker.
Gizmo, our emu, is a character. She may not have two brain cells to rub together, but that doesn’t stop her from being curious and, in her own way, even kind. Her best friend is our goose, and they are inseparable. We also have a fair number of peafowl (peacocks, pea-ladies, and pea-babies), eight chickens, and four quite elderly guinea fowl.
Robert and I have been working with birds almost all of our lives, and this is a shared passion. Robert got his first young parrot on his fourteenth birthday, and Chiquita the yellow-fronted amazon was a beloved member of our family until she died when we were in our mid-fifties. So she lived to about forty years of age.
As an undergrad, I studied avian sciences and ended up working on various research projects at UC Davis with their small colony of parrots. Then, while Robert was in Medical school at Northwestern in the 1980s, I worked as a zookeeper in the bird house at the Brookfield Zoo.
So, I empathize with the owners of these ostriches, to put it mildly. I couldn’t imagine government officials setting up temporary blockades made of hay (because hay bales will absorb excess gunfire) to round up all of my birds on my farm, keeping them penned up like that for who knows how long – without shelter, and then literally gunning them down in the middle of the night, while I had to listen. This is unspeakably cruel.
That gunfire rang in the ears of the owners and the few hearty reporters camped out off the property. Of course, due to the huge “bio threat” hazard (sarcasm) posed by the birds, government officials would not allow anyone on the property to view the massacres.
In the after photo above, the temporary hunting blinds where the wholesale executions were conducted can be seen. The whole debacle is sickening, creepy, and beyond heartless. These birds were not a threat to anyone or anything.
Government officials from the USA offered to take in the ostriches, but the offer was refused by the Canadian government. Dr. Oz even offered his ranch in Florida to house the birds – again, the kind offer was refused.
Note that the birds’ bodies are left out in the open. In an actual biothreat scenario, the carcasses would have been disposed of immediately and not just covered with loose tarps that look like they were purchased from Home Depot. The bodies of these huge birds were then left to rot in the morning sun the next day. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that this is not how an infectious disease threat is handled, but we all know there is no infectious disease threat there. This is pure security theatre.
Peanut and Fred were victims of this same type of politicized authoritarian security theatre overreach.
For those who want to understand why the Canadian response is so incredibly moronic, Bryon Bridle has written an excellent essay on the science linked below.
COVID Chronicles
Ostriches at a farm in British Columbia, Canada, have been making headlines around the world for almost a year. That is because they were the focus of a huge battle that raged regarding what to do about the fact that swabs from two dead birds tested positive by PCR for avian influenza. I have deep, relevant expertise in this area based on my training in …
The official statement from the Canadian government alerts reporters that the “airspace” above the facilities is still restricted airspace. Those people will be arrested for trying to film this catastrophe. The message is clear, the Canadian government controls the Canadian people, their property, their ability to speak freely, to video, and even the ability to own pets and livestock.
But the aftermath of these policies will be that every small farm owner in Canada and the USA has now been notified; If you have sick animals, particularly birds, the message is do not call your local veterinarian, do not seek medical treatment, as the vet will be required to report Avian influenza cases to the state governments. In the United States, that would be to the state health authorities.
That would mean almost certain death for the entire flock. For the small farmer or owner of a backyard flock, there is no financial compensation when this happens.
For a good summary on what is happening with commercial flocks, please read:
Why Are the Chickens So Sick?
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In poultry and livestock Facebook groups, some people are speaking the quiet bit out loud now: do not seek help from professionals when your birds get an infectious disease. That is, unless you want all of your birds “culled” and your farm quarantined.
Instead, people with chickens who are sick are letting the infectious disease run its course, using biosecurity to stop the spread, then breeding the strong birds to create a healthier next generation. This is being done without publicity, without the “hindrance” of health authorities, without hatchery involvement, but in backyard flocks everywhere.
Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm has created a personal breed of chicken that is extremely long-lived, as he only keeps the offspring from his longest-lived, most prolific hens. Creating a healthy breed just takes a bit of care and thought for future generations.
All the while, billions of wild birds are or have been infected with “highly pathogenic avian flu”. All of us are being exposed to bird droppings, feathers, etc and seem little harmed by this. In fact, our immune system is made stronger by such exposures. With new strains evolving rapidly, as has always been the case, wild birds have both built immunity and, as birds breed rapidly, are even evolutionarily less susceptible to severe disease.
In chickens, there are heritage breeds that are less affected by avian influenza, and frankly, it only takes a few generations of breeding to produce strains that are even more resistant. Frankly, disease-resistant poultry already exists in barnyards everywhere.
Survival of the fittest
A flock is only as strong as its weakest bird. So, people should breed for strong, immunologically healthy birds. Which, in fact, is de facto happening in backyard flocks throughout the USA and Canada
Are There Any Alternatives to Vaccinating or Mass Culling Commercial Poultry Flocks?
How about we fund a test to determine which of the heritage breeds are most resistant to H5N1, and then cross these resistant breeds into the commercial poultry lines?
Instead of this common-sense approach, there is a good chance that USDA bureaucrats, in their zeal and short-sighted stupidity, are going to march in, indiscriminately cull, and decimate specialty hatcheries and the treasure trove of genetic information that they have been preserving for generations.
Perhaps it is time to consider other options, such as breeding H5N1-resistant poultry strains?
Yes, there actually are disease-resistant poultry strains. Research has shown that certain chicken breeds possess genetic traits that make them more resilient to various diseases. This resistance is a polygenic trait, involving multiple genes that confer protection against pathogens.
Notable Disease-Resistant Breeds
· Fayoumi Chickens
· Nicobari Chickens
· Indigenous chickens
Many American heritage flocks that have gone through many generations of being exposed to avian influenza strains are very disease-resistant.
Using a rooster from a disease-resistant breed on backyard birds can quickly ramp up disease resistance.
A good place to buy local birds is the small poultry and livestock auctions, as well as Facebook groups. Just ask the breeder about disease resistance in their flock.
Importance of Disease-Resistant Strains
Breeding disease-resistant chicken strains is crucial for:
1. Tackling pathogens more effectively
2. Increasing understanding of host genetics in fighting communicable diseases
3. Reducing the need for antibiotics and other prophylactic measures
4. Enhancing the economic viability of poultry farming, especially in low and middle-income countries
By focusing on the disease-resistant strains, the poultry owner can potentially improve overall flock health, reduce economic losses, and enhance food safety.
It starts with us, the ten percent of Americans who keep backyard chickens. The thirty million people who eat those eggs daily.
The government is not here to help; they are here to protect commercial interests.
They have no interest in breeding disease-resistant backyard poultry breeds. So, be smart and buy them breed healthy, strong birds. Breed for a strong flock and fight avian infectious diseases the smart way, which happens to be the traditional way of farmers worldwide.
And if, like me, you have specialty birds, don’t register your flock with the government unless forced to, find trustworthy professionals to work with and trust yourself to do right by the animals you care for.
They just got away with the murder of this flock of ostriches for no good reason, and they will do it again in a heartbeat. So, particularly in Canada, keep a low profile- if they can kill the ostriches, the pet squirrels and raccoons, and backyard flocks everywhere, what will stop them from killing your animals?
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For information on keeping backyard chickens, we wrote a handy guide a while back:
Homesteading: Beginning with Chickens
Personally, we have yet to raise a hen big enough to plow a field!
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