Thousands Join PETA in Opposing Staffordshire Chicken Factory Farm

For Immediate Release:

13 July 2016

Contact:

Olivia Jordan +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

THOUSANDS JOIN PETA IN OPPOSING STAFFORDSHIRE CHICKEN FACTORY FARM

Nearly 4,000 Protest Application for Massive Penkridge Facility

Penkridge, Staffordshire – Following the submission of a planning application to build a huge intensive broiler chicken farm in Penkridge, PETA fired off a letter – with nearly 4,000 signatures from local residents and other concerned members of the public – urging the South Staffordshire Council to reject the application which, if approved, would condemn up to 482,000 chickens at any one time to lives of misery.

“The citizens of Staffordshire have spoken, and the local council should heed their concerns for the environment, the health of their community and animal welfare”, says PETA Director Mimi Bekhechi. “From the noise of increased traffic to the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of birds would be suffering inside filthy sheds, this facility would be a blight on Staffordshire’s landscape and reputation.”

As PETA warns in its letter, chickens on factory farms are crammed into filthy, ammonia-filled sheds, where they live amidst dead chickens and their own waste. They are unable to engage in any natural behaviour and are bred to grow so large so quickly that many become crippled under their own weight and experience organ failure. Aside from tarnishing the community’s reputation, such a large-scale factory-farming operation would also have an adverse impact on the surrounding countryside, destroying the beautiful scenery and generating a high level of noise and increased traffic, which would undoubtedly disturb residents. And on a larger scale, factory farms are among the main contributors of the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.

PETA’s letter to the South Staffordshire Council is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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