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Megasheds.
Inside grim US megasheds of chlorine-wash chickens that Brits may soon be eating
EXCLUSIVE: We expose the silent hall of he ll in which chickens are reared in the US as Tory Minister George Eustice refuses to rule out such meat being sold in Britain
Birds off to slaughter
This is one of the packed US chicken sheds where birds live a grim life before being killed and washed in chlorine.
They are genetically changed to grow quickly and suffer a string of health problems. One campaigner said: “Such conditions are cruel.”
But Tory George Eustice has not ruled out chlorine-washed meat being sold here post-Brexit.
Crammed into an airless room with barely any space and covered in sores, these chickens spend their pitiful seven weeks on earth in silent horror.
The end finally comes when their throats are slit at a slaughterhouse before they are machine-plucked and washed in chlorine.
I hold one at less than eight weeks old in my hand as its heart pounds in its chest and I am told that thanks to engineered genetics to make them grow quicker, if it were a human it would weigh 47st.
For 23 years, chlorine-washed US chickens have been banned in the EU over fears it masks poor hygiene standards. But post-Brexit, American poultry producers insist we accept their lower welfare conditions as part of any new tie-up.
Stepping inside, I was hit by the overpowering smell of faeces and ammonia. The stench from the two-inch deep layer of excrement was so overpowering I had to cover my mouth and nose.
There must have been more than 30,000 chickens sitting on the floor in front of me – but all were silent.
They didn’t move. Or cluck. Other than those around the corn feeders, most appeared like statues, living in almost complete darkness.
Allowed to pick one up, most shocking was its bloated stomach. Like all the others, it had lost its feathers, exposing red raw flesh.
The whole underside of almost every chicken appeared like an unbroken bedsore.
Because of their abnormally accelerated weight gain some don’t even make it to slaughter, dying of heart attacks and collapsed lungs.
Poultry Science Journal has calculated that if humans grew at the same rate as these modern chickens, they would weigh 47 stone by eight weeks. The noxious compound of nitrogen and hydrogen emitted by the birds can also make them go blind.
Under industry standards, each bird lives in a space equivalent in size to A4 paper.
“Crowding can result in higher ammonia levels, skin irritation from wet litter, and scabs and scratches on the backs of birds from climbing over one another in such crowded space.”
“They are spotless. It’s [chlorine wash] safe. Otherwise, 350 million Americans would be sick every week.”
But some experts insist the chemical may not kill all bacteria present, such as salmonella.
A 2014 study estimated there were about 34,000 UK cases of salmonella food poisoning a year, or 55 per 100,000 people. One in the US in 2011 found there were just over a million cases annually, about 350 per 100,000.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/inside-grim-megasheds-chlorine-wash-21561931
EXCLUSIVE: We expose the silent hall of he ll in which chickens are reared in the US as Tory Minister George Eustice refuses to rule out such meat being sold in Britain
Birds off to slaughter
This is one of the packed US chicken sheds where birds live a grim life before being killed and washed in chlorine.
They are genetically changed to grow quickly and suffer a string of health problems. One campaigner said: “Such conditions are cruel.”
But Tory George Eustice has not ruled out chlorine-washed meat being sold here post-Brexit.
Crammed into an airless room with barely any space and covered in sores, these chickens spend their pitiful seven weeks on earth in silent horror.
The end finally comes when their throats are slit at a slaughterhouse before they are machine-plucked and washed in chlorine.
I hold one at less than eight weeks old in my hand as its heart pounds in its chest and I am told that thanks to engineered genetics to make them grow quicker, if it were a human it would weigh 47st.
For 23 years, chlorine-washed US chickens have been banned in the EU over fears it masks poor hygiene standards. But post-Brexit, American poultry producers insist we accept their lower welfare conditions as part of any new tie-up.
Stepping inside, I was hit by the overpowering smell of faeces and ammonia. The stench from the two-inch deep layer of excrement was so overpowering I had to cover my mouth and nose.
There must have been more than 30,000 chickens sitting on the floor in front of me – but all were silent.
They didn’t move. Or cluck. Other than those around the corn feeders, most appeared like statues, living in almost complete darkness.
Allowed to pick one up, most shocking was its bloated stomach. Like all the others, it had lost its feathers, exposing red raw flesh.
The whole underside of almost every chicken appeared like an unbroken bedsore.
Because of their abnormally accelerated weight gain some don’t even make it to slaughter, dying of heart attacks and collapsed lungs.
Poultry Science Journal has calculated that if humans grew at the same rate as these modern chickens, they would weigh 47 stone by eight weeks. The noxious compound of nitrogen and hydrogen emitted by the birds can also make them go blind.
Under industry standards, each bird lives in a space equivalent in size to A4 paper.
“Crowding can result in higher ammonia levels, skin irritation from wet litter, and scabs and scratches on the backs of birds from climbing over one another in such crowded space.”
“They are spotless. It’s [chlorine wash] safe. Otherwise, 350 million Americans would be sick every week.”
But some experts insist the chemical may not kill all bacteria present, such as salmonella.
A 2014 study estimated there were about 34,000 UK cases of salmonella food poisoning a year, or 55 per 100,000 people. One in the US in 2011 found there were just over a million cases annually, about 350 per 100,000.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/inside-grim-megasheds-chlorine-wash-21561931
Comments
I don't think your post is typical of the chicken farming Industry or community.
Can't speak for America and the photos look brass eye, not what I saw when I visited one in Perth Western Australia, where chap had four sheds twice as long football field. The chickens came too him as chicks went in shed No1 checked, cameras monitors everywhere, before moving shed 2 then 3 then 4 where, fully grown ready to leave.
The sheds were fully Automated, only two people worked there. Sheds had Electric Windows would open let in air, sun blinds roll down to reduce temperature, fans would come on if really hot, feed, water all automated, scrappers moved down the floors cleaning them. Alarms would sound if anything stopped working. The people running it, told me it was not in their interest to produce unhealthy product, as it was a business. Animal Welfare visited yearly, he said, these are not free range due to predators, the fox introduced into Australia had become big problem. So why American Chicken.! We could get our chicken form other suppliers not just America, if concerned regard contamination of Chlorine in Product then don't buy it, as import it should be label USA.
If people don't buy our importers would soon go else where.
If the WHO are happy who do we trust. ? fwiw
OP is SPOT ON for the majority of small chicken farms, not the mass produced, highly automated....ALL with the chlorine I'm pleased to say
I live next door to a chicken farm-now not in operation*- and my neighbour has 4 sheds, each took in 9000 day old chicks, living exactly as originally described in the OP but with fans to cool down and heat up as required, automatic feeders to get them to 47 stone each but no cleaning regiment till the end
*Why did he close it down?
36,000 day old chicks-eggs from Belgium, a chick on delivery costing 0.25p each
7 weeks of feed, water , heat as and when required and approx 5% 'wastage' over time left him with approx 34,000 chickens for sale at £1.00 each...BUT
cost of chicken catchers
cost of cleanup operation for approx 1 week after a 7 week's crop growing
Some chickens were sold early(cheaper) - approx 5 weeks-so they could be put out into open barns by someone so they can be re-classified as 'barn reared' and in worst case scenarios ' free range' ...Still the same bloated, genetically modified 47 stone chickens!!
When Tesco's et al were selling 3 chickens for £10, the chicken farmers had to take a reduction on their £1.00 per chicken fee
Food is too cheap in this country...we have had prices artificially held back by the relative costs of imports being so much cheaper than a British produced item....
We run food business and we have seen, subtle price increases over the last 3 'Brexit influenced' years
Partly thanks to Prittstick( no sh it sticks) Patel, even if we can persuade the economically inactive to
stop playing poker/horse racing all dayget of their ar see, they won't do that hard labour for the current minimum wagesThat is quite naïve.
We don't import them now, because we are EU members, and the EU wont allow it.
A US trade deal will include them.
If you imported them what would stop you repackaging them to stop consumers knowing?
What about hormone fed beef, etc., and generally lower food production standards. allowing rat hairs and maggots in various food and things like orange juice.
The article is a report on an operation, not some sort of general opinion.
The chlorine wash is designed to compensate for lower hygiene standards.
They are genetically changed to grow quickly and suffer a string of health problems. One campaigner said: “Such conditions are cruel.”
Stepping inside, I was hit by the overpowering smell of faeces and ammonia. The stench from the two-inch deep layer of excrement was so overpowering I had to cover my mouth and nose.
Crammed into an airless room with barely any space and covered in sores, these chickens spend their pitiful seven weeks on earth in silent horror.
Allowed to pick one up, most shocking was its bloated stomach. Like all the others, it had lost its feathers, exposing red raw flesh.
The whole underside of almost every chicken appeared like an unbroken bedsore.
ps you need to do what most sane, balanced non Trump supporting Americans do and buy this way...https://products.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/marys-chicken-organic-whole-chicken-0ed2c0
https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/28/secret-camera-films-chickens-laying-eggs-surrounded-by-rotting-birds-12131921/