The slaughter of five million chickens at the Rembrandt Farms industrial farm has animal rights activists on the warpath for the “sacrifice horrors” method that was used last March at the hands of 200 workers who were fired days later.
According to a report by The Guardian, the slaughter of the birds took place after a case of avian influenza in “a commercial layer chicken flock” in Buena Visa County where Rembrandt Farms is located, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Management announced a month ago.
The company where the mass slaughter of birds took place is owned by billionaire Glen Taylor, one of the richest inhabitants of Iowa and also owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The pro-animal protester Zoe Rosenberg told CBS MoneyWatch that the farm created an environment that facilitated the spread of the disease: “For e To begin with, I don’t think any farm should have that many birds.”
The birds died slowly from suffocation
Rosenberg also indicated that the method that the company used to slaughter the chickens is “horrifying” and is that, according to the Storm Lake Times, in this case the Ventilation Shutdown Plus method was used, which is characterized by closing the ventilation of the barn, causing temperatures to rise and the birds die slowly from suffocation.
“They were essentially roasted alive. They were cooked from the inside out,” added Zoe Rosenberg, who also had a harsh comment for the owner of the company: “Glen Taylor is a billionaire, but he chose the cheapest way to kill these birds in a very cruel way.”
After the slaughter of the birds came the dismissal of 200 workers. Hispanic supervisor Oscar García revealed to The Guardian that the employees worked in deplorable conditions and were mistreated: “People worked in those barns taking out dead birds in terrible conditions, feces everywhere, doing 12 to 14 hours. They couldn’t protest because then they would be fired and lose their severance pay. Then they would be thrown out of work and no one would speak for them”.
USA. registers the first case of bird flu in Colorado
The uncovering of the slaughter of these birds comes after state officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the Thursday night that a Colorado man tested positive for an H5 bird flu virus.
This case would be marking the first recorded human infection in the United States of the virus that has been classified as highly contagious and that is dragging commercial gangs and wild birds, but which, according to experts in the field, represents a small threat to humans.
According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) the man who tested positive for the avian influenza A(H5) virus is incarcerated in a state correctional facility and was in contact with infected poultry while working on a farm in Montrose County.