Million Chickens Starved by Bankrupt Farm

[Guest guest]

Please forward widely to rescue groups... Thanks!

 

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20020307_1682.html

 

1M Chickens May Die Amid Money Woes

As Many As 1 Million Chickens May Die From Company's Money Woes

 

The Associated Press

 

 

A T L A N T A, March 7 — Up to 1 million starving chickens in Georgia

and Florida may have to be killed after their financially strapped

owner stopped feeding them.

 

Cypress Foods Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this

year, left about 1.4 million egg-laying hens in southeast Georgia and

central Florida without feed for as long as 10 days, agriculture

officials said.

 

About 1.2 million of the hens were on nine farms in southeast Georgia

near Blackshear. Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin estimated that

two-thirds of those birds almost 800,000 may be unsalvageable because

they are so emaciated and diseased.

 

" We're getting some good cooperation, but it's still a very tedious

thing to deal with, " Irvin said. " You run the risk of spreading

disease, and we've put the farms under quarantine. "

 

Calls to the Cypress Foods' corporate office in Winter Haven, Fla., on

Thursday were not answered.

 

Georgia officials were notified of the starving birds late last week,

and about 300,000 to 350,000 already have been sold to other active

poultry companies, Irvin said.

 

The rest likely will end up at a rendering plant to be disposed of, he

said.

 

Georgia has about 11.5 million egg-laying hens and is among the

country's top egg-producing states, said Robert Howell, executive

director of the Georgia Egg Commission.

 

At a Cypress Foods farm near Dade City, Fla., prison inmates worked for

a second day to clear an estimated 20,000 dead chickens from the open

warehouse-type buildings that housed 200,000 laying hens.

 

Florida state veterinarian Dr. Leroy M. Coffman said if any of the

birds still alive were in good enough condition they would be placed

somewhere. But these were older birds, he said, and with the lack of

food and amount of stress they had endured, he was not hopeful any

would be spared.

 

A spokesman for the sheriff's office in Pasco County, Fla., where one

of the farms is located, said investigators were trying to find out who

stopped the feedings and whether any charges would be filed.

 

Cypress Foods filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in

Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 2 and continued to operate the business. Andrea

Bauman was assigned as trustee on Feb. 28 following an emergency

hearing sought by creditors.

 

Bauman contacted agricultural officials in the two states and spent the

weekend visiting all the farms, accompanied by state officials, her

attorney said.

 

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material

may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

 

 

 

Try FREE Mail - the world's greatest free email!

/