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VICTORY FOR THE HENS IN TOORADIN!

Published by
admin
at May 1, 2008 in General. 473 Comments

Tooradin Victory!

It’s exciting to announce that the proposed mega battery-hen factory farm in Tooradin has been rejected by the VCAT tribunal! This is an outstanding victory for the countless hens who would have suffered and died there, and for the township of Tooradin.

You may remember months ago we told you Tamarix Poultry wanted to build five massive sheds, each holding 50,000 battery hens in cages four tiers high, and three sheds for rearing chicks with 17,000 babies in cages three tiers high. You can imagine how the residents of Tooradin felt, when they realised their quaint little seaside town was to play host to a putrid death camp plonked right on the main highway, next to a new housing estate and tourist highlights they were developing! The ‘Gateway to Gippsland’ was about to become the ‘Gateway to Gomorrah’!

The residents of this small town quickly lodged 42 objections. When ALV heard about it we told everyone who would listen, circulated it on our enews, set up a web page, made leaflets, drew up petitions and ran a stall at the local Tooradin market. Pretty soon the objections swelled to almost 600!

The local council unanimously rejected the application, and Tamarix Poultry Pty Ltd took the matter to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). Outrageously, ALV was denied standing at the tribunal hearing as VCAT didn’t accept that animals and their interests were under their jurisdiction. VCAT refuses to take animal welfare concerns seriously, despite our constant objections that the Codes of Practice (that are supposed to prevent cruelty) are a complete joke and are only recommendations that subsequently allows the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (which is under their jurisdiction) to be ignored.

So it was up to the residents and local council to put the case forward. ALV attended the whole hearing and I felt exactly like a battery hen… that is I had to sit there and listen to the whole thing and not say one word! After three nail biting days of evidence from both sides, the Tribunal decided to visit the proposed site personally before handing down their decision. YIPPPEEE!!! it was a NO to yet another torture centre for the intelligent hens we all care so deeply about. I heard about the decision while still in the USA and I wonder if you all heard me yell with delight. I know the tears were streaming down my face.

Reading the transcript of VCAT’s decision is quite interesting. Most of the concerns raised, such as odour, noise, traffic and environmental damage were deemed inconclusive. It would seem the Tribunal was most swayed by the outpouring of objections from the local community. This shows just how important it is for people to participate when injustice arises, and that every signature, phone call, letter to the editor, protest, placard and pamphlet can have the power of life and death.
So thank you to everyone who took part, who fought the good fight, and saved millions of lives from abject misery. With you in solidarity until everyone is free.

Forgotten Victims - Parent Birds

Published by
admin
at November 14, 2007 in General. 7 Comments

Broiler Parent Bird
Click here to view a Slide-Show Presentation >

Openrescue Number 3 in Broiler Breeding Sheds

ALV’s Openrescue team, headed by members of our newly launched Animal Liberation Youth group (ALY) inspected the broiler breeding parent factory farm near Melbourne for the third time on October 4, 2007.

We rescued a further ten ill and debilitated birds, nine hens and one rooster. Two of the hens were euthanased by the vet due to their crippling and poor condition. The rooster was in chronic pain and put on antibiotics and we have to soak his feet daily to loosen and remove the rock hard feaces which are compacted and embedded in the flesh on both his feet. Both his claws were swollen, red and infected.

There were thousands of hens and roosters inside this putrid shed, most of the hens had red raw backs and underbellies with feathers missing from their backs and from around the back of their heads. Roosters often hold on to the back of the hen’s neck with their beaks when mating.

The floor in this shed was appalling, with over twelve months of compacted and hardened faeces built up into ridges and valleys like a barren moonscape. The air was filled with dirt and feather dust and the smell was overwhelming. We found dead bodies rotting inside the shed and fresh faeces smeared on some of the birds. They have been inside this shed for a year and are very debilitated and exhausted and will soon all be killed and processed for blood and bone, stock cubes or pet food.

These birds are the parent birds of broiler chickens, birds who are raised for their flesh. The fertilized eggs of the broiler breeding parent birds are removed daily from the shed and put into incubators for hatching. They never see their offspring who are whisked away once hatched to be ‘grown’ in huge industrial broiler production sheds for 6-8 weeks. The chicks are ‘harvested’ after 8 weeks when they are already the size of adult chickens but still babies with blue eyes and chirping. Many are too weak to hold the abnormal weight gain promoted by selective breeding and routine antibiotics in their feed which acts as a growth promotant. The parent birds (those pictured in our slide presentation) are only fed every other day to prohibit high weight gains so they are still able to breed. They are continually hungry, frustrated, abused and suffering.

You can help stop this. Adopt a vegan lifestyle and never buy chicken meat again, and encourage all your family and friends to do the same.