Farmers Put Live Chickens in Wood Chippers (what the cluck?)

Reuters ^

[Dallas]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

Two California poultry farmers who fed some 30,000 live chickens into wood chippers will not face criminal charges because they had permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture , prosecutors said on Friday.

But a spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States called the farmers "callous and barbaric" and disagreed with the decision not to prosecute them.

The farmers needed to destroy the chickens because they were "spent" -- or no longer able to produce eggs -- and could not make chicken soup out of them because the farms were under quarantine for the poultry virus Exotic Newcastle Disease, District Attorney's spokeswoman Gayle Stewart said.

Stewart said the men, who run a poultry farm near San Diego, asked a senior veterinarian with the Agriculture Department if they could employ the wood chippers and were given permission.

"Once they had permission we decided that they did not have any criminal intent," Stewart said.

Brothers Arie and Will Wilgenburg, who run Escondido-based Ward Poultry Farm, could not be reached for comment on Friday. Earlier, they told the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper that they were doing "what we thought we had to do" based on expert advice and stopped as soon as they learned otherwise.

Wayne Pacelle, a spokesman for the Humane Society, said that explanation was unacceptable.

"The act of feeding live chickens into a wood chipper is an extraordinarily callous and barbaric act and I can't imagine any person with a whit of common sense would use a wood chipper as a killing tool," he said. "No person with any experience in killing animals would sanction the use of this technique."

Pacelle said the District Attorney's decision not to prosecute the brothers rested on the "faulty assumption" that using wood chippers to kill chickens was an accepted practice.

[Freedom2specul8]

I guess there is not a better way to eliminate that many chickens. I'm thinking nightmares for the folks who had to do it. :-p

[flying Elvis]

In a related article, California area McDonalds are cutting the price on Chicken McNuggets. ;)

[nygoose]

Cluck, cluck, clu....

[Bluntpoint]

Walmart has some Fowl Mulch on sale.

[Dallas]

LOL....I can picture a couple of libs whining about this over a lobster dinner.

[Freedom2specul8]

Yep, after reading some of the informative posts like yours, I have to agree with you. It's such a large # ..I guess there was no other way.

[mewzilla]

Here's another question. What are Dept of Ag regs regarding euthanizing large numbers of farm animals?

[onehipdad]

It reminds me of the Malcolm in the Middle episode when Hal rented a chipper and after Dewey threw a pillow in it, they started throwing in everything they could find in the garage, just to see what would happen...

[Mr. Mojo]

A better idea would be to drop all 30,000 chickens onto a terrorist compound in the Bekaa Valley, and the MOAB the place, incinerating them all with barely a trace.

[stuartcr]

As the Society for Prevention of Cruelty To Animals, it would seem that they should make a formal statement about this, as opposed to making a formal statement about Hussein.

[It's me]

This was obviously a bad way of disposing the chickens BUT, we have here in Southern California, the avian disease, Exotic Newcastle Disease. It is VERY contagious amoung poultry and other birds. The San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park have closed down thier Aviairies. Also, all poultry portions of local County Fairs have been cancelled for the next few YEARS.
This particular farm said this was done because they were told to AND, they are not allowed to ship the 30,000 (yes thirty thousand) chickens up north to be destroyed, which is what they would normally do.

[EggsAckley]

"Murder Most Fowl"

[flying Elvis]

Several years ago, a tornado hit a local chicken house. The farmer told us to come get any live chickens we wanted. We caught about 200. Killing them and cleaning them was the biggest mess I have ever seen. Headless chickens were flopping around everywhere slinging blood all over everything and everyone.
Even freakier, was discovering that headless chickens can still squawk.

[It's me]

WAY TOO FUNNY!!!
Sorry, couldn't resist laughing.... :o(

[Chad Fairbanks]

Ahhh... American Farmers - so efficient... I mean, imagine how long it would have taken, and the amount of resources needed, to kill each one individually... I mean, a woodchipper could probably handle what? Two, three at a time? A good example of doubling, or even tripling, the productivity...

If more american farmers thought this way, many would not be in such financial trouble...

Chad "Always look for the silver lining" Fairbanks

[HamiltonJay]

Gory perhaps, but cruel? Guess it depends on the size of the chipper. If it was big enough to where basically a chicken was engulfed completely and instantaneously by the cutters, then I don't think it qualifies as cruel..

If they had to be ground up a few seconds or minutes each, then yea, damned cruel... any crueler than being played with by a house cat until dead? Argueable...

[HeadOn]

BASS-O-MATIC!!!

[CWW]

Who ordered the chicken shake?!

[HeadOn]

See #77 - took me a few minutes to figure out how to post it...

[HumanaeVitae]

It's all very confusing.

I think this would be less confusing if we knew two things:

a) The number of beers consumed while doing this; and

b) The number of teeth remaining in their skulls.

That would clear it up a bit.