Buckeye Egg Farm Set to Kill 600,000 Chickens in Aftermath of Tornado

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Buckeye Egg Farm Set to Kill 600,000 Chickens in Aftermath of Tornado

 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Humane Society of the United States

(HSUS) announced today that more than one half million chickens trapped in the

wreckage of an Ohio egg farm are slated to be crushed to death this afternoon

and blamed the factory farming techniques that trapped them in their cages for

their deaths.

 

An estimated 600,000 hens are still trapped in row upon row of tiny wire battery

cages nearly two weeks after a tornado ripped through central Ohio on September

20 and demolished Buckeye Egg Farm in Croton, Ohio, one of the nation's largest

factory farms.

 

Farm owners called off rescue efforts several days ago citing the danger to

their crew.

 

" This is the worst disaster I have seen in more than 30 years, " said Sandy

Rowland, the director of The HSUS Great Lakes Regional Office in Bowling Green,

Ohio, " and it's a disaster that could have been avoided. If this facility had

not used the intensive

confinement method of caging chickens, a rescue effort might have succeeded. As

it is, the efforts of The Humane Society of the United States and other animal

protection organizations and local volunteers to remove and save the trapped

birds, while commendable,

never had a real chance of success. "

 

The Ohio Department of Agriculture contacted The HSUS and other animal

protection groups to seek a viable, non-lethal response to the disaster that

shattered dozens of metal-and-wood sheds, trapping more than a million laying

hens in the debris. The HSUS has been working around the clock with the Ohio

Department of

Agriculture, and other animal groups to alleviate the suffering of these birds

and reduce the impact of the disaster.

 

Buckeye Egg Farm allowed rescuers access to some of the chickens, notes Rowland,

but they were able to save only an estimated 2,500 birds. HSUS is coordinating

rescue efforts and working with Farm Sanctuary and other animal rescue groups to

rescue and relocate hundreds of birds.

 

" All that is left for the animal welfare community to do is to reiterate what

has been said in the past, " said Rowland. " It is the contention of The HSUS and

other animal protection agencies, that when tens of thousands, or in this cases

hundreds of thousands, of

animals are housed in intensive confinement systems such as these at Buckeye Egg

Farm, it is virtually impossible to safely and effectively evacuate or rescue

them in a disaster situation. "

 

Rowland notes that it is almost the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Floyd,

which killed millions of farm animals in North Carolina and created an

environmental disaster that the state is still trying to cope with today.

 

" Tragically, the agricultural industry refuses to learn from these disasters, "

she said. " More tragically, the industry will continue to refuse to support

humane solutions because there is no

economic incentive to alleviate the suffering of what it considers to be

disposable commodities and not living beings. "

 

http://www.usnewswire.com:80/topnews/Current_Releases/1002-123.html

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