Thousands Join PETA in Opposing Suffolk Chicken Prison

For Immediate Release:

4 March 2020

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

THOUSANDS JOIN PETA IN OPPOSING SUFFOLK CHICKEN PRISON

Over 24,000 Compassionate People Agree: Authorities Should Stand With the Public and Block Farm Proposal

Suffolk – Plans have been submitted to East Suffolk Council for an intensive chicken farm in Shadingfield that would hold as many as 141,000 chickens at a time in intensive confinement and condemn over 1 million sensitive birds to slaughter every year.

In response, PETA has sent a petition with over 24,000 signatures from local residents and other concerned members of the public urging the council to reject the plans, as the farm would cause the birds confined there immense suffering. Chickens are intelligent, social animals who can feel pain and distress. Thousands of gentle birds would be crammed into each of the three proposed buildings and denied the chance to do anything that comes naturally to them, such as roaming freely, roosting in trees, and interacting with their parents.

In the petition, PETA points out that, in addition to causing cruelty to animals on a massive scale, a facility of this kind would likely have many negative effects on the local area, including diminishing the character of the rural landscape and spoiling natural vistas. Ammonia from the chickens’ waste would also have a negative impact on air quality, human health, the environment, and wildlife.

“Thousands of compassionate people have spoken, and East Suffolk 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 chickens are curious, active animals who, in nature, spend their time foraging, exploring, and taking dust baths. Chickens naturally live for up to 11 years, but on this farm, they’d be sent to the abattoir when they’re 33 to 37 days old. There, they’d be gassed or electrocuted or their throats would be slit.

PETA opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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