WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3, 2014
B.C. CHAMPS! The MEI Eagles played a perfect tournament over the weekend to win their ninth B.C. volleyball banner in 13 years. A27
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Two murder charges – after four decades Garry Handlen declared ‘menace to society’ in 1979
Local turkey farm hit by avian flu Thousands of birds to be euthanized Tyler OLSEN Abbotsford News
Vikki HOPES
An Abbotsford turkey farm and a broiler breeder chicken farm in Chilliwack are in quarantine after H5 avian influenza was discovered earlier this week. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said tests confirmed the disease Monday after both farms reported significant numbers of sudden deaths over the weekend. Dr. Jane Pritchard, chief veterinarian officer with the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, said about half of the Abbotsford’s farm’s 11,000 birds had already died from the disease, while 1,000 of the Chilliwack’s farm’s 7,000 birds have died. “This is catasrophic for the individual farmers,” she told reporters. The remaining birds will MORINEE be euthanized and compostONLws.com ed on site. Officials did not abbyne identify the afflicted farms. Further testing is underway to determine the strain of the influenza and its pathogenicity (the severity of the illness in birds), but Pritchard said officials are treating it as if it was a high path strain. It’s not yet known how the virus made its way onto the affected farms. “At this point we have no direct connection between the two farms,” Pritchard said. The two farms are eight kilometres apart. “There are multiple ways of transmission, either through migratory birds or movement of infected birds to another, from humans and other aspects,” added CFIA chief veterinary officer Harpreet Kochar. The CFIA will be setting up a “surveil-
Abbotsford News
A judge sentencing Garry Taylor Handlen in 1979 to 18 years in prison for a violent rape declared him a “menace to society” and said Handlen’s record of sexual offences was appalling. Handlen, now 67, was arrested last Friday in Surrey and charged with the first-degree murders of Kathryn-Mary Herbert, 11, of Matsqui (which later amalgamated with Abbotsford) in 1975 and Monica Jack, 12, of Merritt in 1978. Police made the announcement at a press conference on Monday in Surrey, where they said that Handlen, recently living in Ontario, had been a “person of interest” early in the investigations into the two murders, but it had taken this long to gather enough evidence to support charges. Continued on A5
Garry Handlen has been charged with two murders dating back to the 1970s.
Aquaris
Continued on A5
Kathryn-Mary Herbert, 11, of Matsqui went missing on her way home in 1975.
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