State Of NZ Poultrey: Sick And Dying

 
10,000 young chickens die from disease every day on New Zealand farms. Three million one-day-old male chicks are gassed or shredded alive every year, surplus to egg industry requirements. Nine out of ten chickens are so grossly overweight they have difficulty walking.
 
New Zealand animal advocacy organisation SAFE today launches a consumer campaign to condemn an industry that claims its welfare standards are world class.
 
“During last night’s television programme, Jamie’s Fowl Dinners, Jamie Oliver exposed the shocking reality of modern poultry farming in Britain. We believe New Zealanders will be appalled to learn that New Zealand poultry farming practices are no different,” says SAFE campaign director Hans Kriek.
 
“Despite being routinely fed antibiotics many chickens fail to live to even six weeks of age, the typical age of a chicken sold at the supermarket. Given that over 10,000 birds die prematurely due to ill health each day, it is reasonable to assume thousands of sick and crippled birds are being processed and eaten each week. Chicken is a leading cause of food poisoning in this country and I can’t help but wonder if the animals’ ill health has anything to do with this,” says Mr Kriek.
 
“Of the 90 million meat chickens intensively farmed in New Zealand over 90 per cent cannot walk normally. Meat chickens suffer from a range of other serious health problems due to their unnaturally fast growth rate.”
 
SAFE will dump ‘dead and dying birds’ on the doorstep of the Poultry Industry Association at
96D Carlton Gore Rd in Auckland from 12 noon today as part of a roadside protest.

SAFE has also placed advertisements in newspapers around the country calling on New Zealanders to use their consumer power and no longer buy cruelly produced poultry products.
 
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