January 2002
After receiving a complaint from a local who was getting nowhere with state officials about a number of neglected chickens and goats in Okracoke, North Carolina, PETA immediately sent a fax to the Hyde County sheriff’s office asking for cruelty-to-animals charges and for confiscation of the remaining animals. After repeated correspondence and phone conversations with the sheriff’s office and the deputy assigned to the case, two misdemeanor charges were filed against the farmer. He even spent two days in jail after being arrested on the charges.