September 22, 2003

Heat kills 1 Million Chickens

British and French farmers may face prosecution to answer for the more than a million chickens which have died from Europe's summer heatwave.  Chicken prices have already upped 20 percent, as shortfalls in supply push up prices.

Welfare organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, has requested for "urgent action" to end the chickens' suffering, in a letter to the Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett. 

PETA has called for farmers to be prosecuted if they have allowed huge numbers of birds to die on the floor of their sheds or in transport. The paper adds that thousands of chickens were found dead in a lorry arriving at a plant, where as many as 20,000 birds were crammed into each sheds where temperatures have risen intolerably in recent days. Many chickens die as a result of the extreme heart, due to heart and lung problems.