Buckeye Farm Threatens to Bury Chickens
by Sherry Morse
Faced with the necessity of closing two barns a week, starting this month, officials at Buckeye Egg Farm in Ohio have said that they will need to bury chickens in landfills to meet this goal.
In July, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) revoked Buckeye Egg’s operating permits for its sites in three counties. Buckeye Egg owns nearly fifteen million chickens and has been cited eighty-seven times for permit violations.
The company has also been accused by its neighbors of polluting waterways and causing fly and rodent infestations.
Prior to this ruling, Buckeye Egg had agreed to pay a one million dollar fine and make more than $300,000 worth of improvements to the facilities.
According to Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, "This company has repeatedly violated environmental laws, yet has been unfazed by numerous civil penalties."
Buckeye Egg has appealed the ODA’s decision which set up a timeline dictating which farms should be shut down and when these shutdowns would occur.
Until the Environmental Review Appeals Commission makes its ruling, the barns at Buckeye Egg will remain open.
Normally, Buckeye Egg sends 100,000 to 175,000 birds to the slaughterhouse
each week as part of clearing out aging chickens. In order to conform to the shut down order Buckeye Egg spokesman Matt Doyle
says that chickens would need to be sent out at four times this rate.
ODA spokeswoman Deb Abbot said that the timeline is not unreasonable and that Buckeye Egg should have no problem disposing of all its birds by June of 2004.
Doyle disagreed, saying companies that render the birds into pet food can not take the extra birds on short notice.
If this is the case, the chickens would need to be buried in a landfill which would make the company responsible for euthanizing the chickens.
Doyle said, "Nobody involved wants to see the birds treated in a less-than-humane way."
Buckeye Egg produces four percent of the nation’s eggs - 2.6 billion last year.
© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.
Faced with the necessity of closing two barns a week, starting this month, officials at Buckeye Egg Farm in Ohio have said that they will need to bury chickens in landfills to meet this goal.
In July, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) revoked Buckeye Egg’s operating permits for its sites in three counties. Buckeye Egg owns nearly fifteen million chickens and has been cited eighty-seven times for permit violations.
The company has also been accused by its neighbors of polluting waterways and causing fly and rodent infestations.
Prior to this ruling, Buckeye Egg had agreed to pay a one million dollar fine and make more than $300,000 worth of improvements to the facilities.
According to Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery, "This company has repeatedly violated environmental laws, yet has been unfazed by numerous civil penalties."
Buckeye Egg has appealed the ODA’s decision which set up a timeline dictating which farms should be shut down and when these shutdowns would occur.
Until the Environmental Review Appeals Commission makes its ruling, the barns at Buckeye Egg will remain open.
Normally, Buckeye Egg sends 100,000 to 175,000 birds to the slaughterhouse
each week as part of clearing out aging chickens. In order to conform to the shut down order Buckeye Egg spokesman Matt Doyle
says that chickens would need to be sent out at four times this rate.
ODA spokeswoman Deb Abbot said that the timeline is not unreasonable and that Buckeye Egg should have no problem disposing of all its birds by June of 2004.
Doyle disagreed, saying companies that render the birds into pet food can not take the extra birds on short notice.
If this is the case, the chickens would need to be buried in a landfill which would make the company responsible for euthanizing the chickens.
Doyle said, "Nobody involved wants to see the birds treated in a less-than-humane way."
Buckeye Egg produces four percent of the nation’s eggs - 2.6 billion last year.
© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.
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