Illegal grisly corpse pit found by animal rights activists

This is disgusting, well done on exposing it.

Alex B

Just to clarify, the farm the birds were found on, was a broiler chicken farm. we were in the area looking for a piggery, when we discoverde this dump hidden in trees. On the other side of the trees was a bunch of factory farm sheds which turned out to be a poultry farm. We never got to the pig farm and will have to look at that on the next trip. The Horizons Regional Council are inspecting the property looking for environmental/pollution offences. The Ministry of Agriculture who are responsible for enforcing animal welfare laws (but only if they have any spare time cos they are so busy promoting factory farming) have already decided not to investigate and leave everything to the council.

So, what else is new?

makes me so angry and sad,THANK YOU to these activists for being active ,that poor little chick ,and if you guys werent there ,would have died a slow horrible death,MAF you are scum,these ppl doing the job your supposed to be doing,thank you again guys
activist in AUS

You guys do an incredible job looking out for awful things being done to animals. Well done for rescuing the chicken and chick. Aaron

council wankers are downplaying the illegal dump today. cant upset the industry that would be wrong . .

Rotting birds 'no big issue'
By CAITLIN McKAY - Manawatu Standard | Wednesday, 4 April 2007
Horizons Regional Council says 150 dumped chickens in an open air pit at a Foxton poultry farm is a "storm in a teacup".

Poultry farm owner Dirk Holtslag told the Manawatu Standard a new covered, concrete, offal pit is arriving from Auckland today.

This comes after animal activists found an open pit containing more than 100 rotting chicken carcasses on Sunday.

The poultry farm has 76,000 broiler birds, or birds bred for their meat.

A closed offal pit is a requirement for those with livestock.

It must be 20m from any watercourse.

Mr Holtslag said he was surprised to get a visit from Horizons this week.

"I've been digging pits for over 20 years and (with regular inspections) no one has told me any differently."

He said he regularly covers the pits of dead birds, at the back of his property, with lime at the end of each broiler bird cycle (six to eight weeks) before digging another pit.

Animal rights activists found the dead broiler chickens, covered in maggots and flies, dumped with other rubbish among trees near the back of Mr Holtslag's property on Bergin Road.

Open Rescue Collective activist Mark Eden told the Manawatu Standard that the group had "gone looking" for evidence of animal cruelty.

Mr Eden said many carcasses were torn apart and had been partially eaten by predators.

Other corpses were maggot- infested.

Mr Holtslag said all the birds had died a natural death.

Mr Eden alleged a live chicken was also discovered injured among the corpses.

"It was thrown alive into the pit and left to die."

The bird had crippled legs, was unable to stand or walk, and needed immediate veterinary attention.

Mr Holtslag said he's "never" thrown a live bird on the pit.

"Occasionally, a bird may get out of the shed and roam around."

Mr Eden lodged a complaint with Horizons and MAF.

Horizons compliance officer Greg Bevin said he could find no evidence of live animals in the pit.

"It (the pit) just smelt like dead animals."

The open pit was in breach of regulations, Mr Bevin said.

However, Horizons was happy an assurance had been given to replace the pit.

"I don't think anything untoward has been going on at the property."

Poultry Industry Association executive director Michael Brooks said, after viewing the pictures, that an open pit was in "clear breach" of industry standards.

"This is unacceptable and not common.

"It's illegal practice and any pit should be covered immediately.

"I will be finding out why this has happened."

yeah, the chicken walked out of a locked door, wandered thru a fence, over a paddock, through some trees and into a pit, despite not being able to stand up. yeah right.

I recon, that could have been tonights dinner! Fucking waste!

check out these , www.thesecret.tv/home.html and www.whatthebleep.com ,they work

What a pack of tossers. How about concentrating on stopping child abuse, or better yet, get a job and stop wasting the dole money you are undoubtedly receiving. An I bet the KFC wrapper was planted to make the phot more interesting.

icant believe the way so many animals are being treated itds appaling that they have no rights its 100% abusive and mean!!! kfc shouldnt be alowed to do this!!