Thousands Join PETA In Opposing Chicken Factory Farm Expansion

For Immediate Release:

6 June 2014

Contact:

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

More Than 26,000 Agree: Application for Massive Wychavon Facility Must Be Killed and Buried

Wychavon, Worcestershire – Despite being refused permission by the Wychavon District Council last year to build an intensive broiler chicken production facility in Upton Snodsbury – a decision that was shockingly overturned by the Planning Inspectorate – Edward Davies has now submitted another application to the council for twice as many broiler units (four), which, if built, would confine 160,000 chickens to filthy, crowded sheds. PETA has fired off a letter – complete with more than 26,000 signatures from local residents and other concerned members of the public – urging the council to reject Davies’ application.

“The district council did the right thing last year in pushing to keep Wychavon free from cruel factory farms by rejecting the original application, and PETA is calling on council members to stick to their guns and make exactly the same decision this year”, says PETA UK Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi. “From the smell to the traffic to the knowledge that tens of thousands of sensitive birds are suffering inside filthy sheds, Mr Davies’ facility would be a blight on Wychavon’s landscape as well as its reputation.”

As PETA warns in its letter, factory farms are extremely cruel to the chickens who are confined there, unable to engage in any natural behaviour and bred to grow so large so fast that many of them become crippled under their own weight and experience organ failure.

These facilities also represent a hazard to the environment: waste can contaminate local water sources, and the stench of ammonia – so strong that the corrosive substance burns the lungs and skin of the birds trapped inside the sheds – could adversely affect local residents. And on a larger scale, reports indicate that factory farms are among the main contributors to the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change.

PETA’s letter to the Wychavon District Council is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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