Thousands Join PETA in Opposing Kelso Chicken Prison
For Immediate Release:
1 July 2020
Contact:
Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
Thousands Join PETA in Opposing Kelso Chicken Prison
Over 22,000 Compassionate People Agree: Authorities Should Stand With the Public and Block Farm Proposal
Kelso, Scottish Borders – A proposal has been submitted for an egg farm in Kelso that would condemn 37,000 gentle birds at a time to a life of misery and inevitable slaughter. In response, PETA has sent a petition with over 22,000 signatures from local residents and other concerned members of the public urging Scottish Borders Council to reject the plan.
In the petition, PETA points out that, in addition to causing cruelty to animals on a massive scale, an expansion of this kind would likely have many negative effects on the local area, including the erection of buildings on the site – which would likely compromise the character of the landscape – increased traffic from heavy goods vehicles, and the generation of enormous quantities of manure and environmental pollutants such as ammonia.
“Thousands of compassionate people have spoken, and Scottish Borders Council should heed their concerns for animal welfare, the environment, and the health of the community,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA is calling for this plan to be scrapped, sparing thousands of birds a lifetime of suffering and an agonising death.”
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – notes that when their exhausted bodies can no longer produce the volume of eggs demanded from them, chickens are crammed into small crates and endure a harrowing journey to the abattoir. Over a million chickens raised for food die in transit each year from exposure and suffocation. When the surviving hens arrive, their legs are shackled and their throats are cut – sometimes while they’re still conscious.
The group further notes that factory farming not only is a living hell for animals but also creates a perfect breeding ground for infectious diseases. When animals are crammed together on crowded, faeces-ridden farms, transported in filthy lorries, and slaughtered on killing floors soaked with blood, urine, and other bodily fluids, deadly pathogens emerge and can spread from animals to humans.
Salmonella and E coli are common on intensive farms, and birds’ high stress levels make them more susceptible to campylobacter infection – the leading cause of infectious intestinal disease in the West – which is easily passed to humans in chicken flesh.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.
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