It's the chicken business.
Animal activists accused the Brooklyn and Queens markets of selling live chickens “looking sick” when they scrambled to clear stock before the national shutdown due to avian flu.
Animal advocacy group Nyclass shares a hindrance photo that says he is showing Tiva in Ridgewood. .
“We suspect that many of these birds may have avian flu and are likely to have avian flu,” Nyclass executive director Edita Birnkrant told the Post. , there were no positive test birds in the market. “There are only a handful of tests. [and] There are 80 markets where thousands of birds are born each week. Everyone is flying blindly. ”
Kikiriki Live Poultry, Inc. and Pio Pio Poultry, both in Bushwick, are said to keep the birds in poor condition over the weekend ahead of the closure.
The birds shown in the image were packed in cages that were so crowded that several chickens appeared dead, Birkrant argued.
An executive order issued Friday by Gov. Kathy Hochul mandates all live poultry markets in New York City, Long Island and Westchester counties, following seven cases of avian flu being discovered in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. It has now been mandated that the store will be temporarily closed until February 14th.
The store, which was found to have infected birds, was “depopulated” after successful testing, disinfected and ordered to be reopened. Stores without positive bird flu cases are told to sell all their stocks until Monday, and will then be disinfected for at least five days and left closed while state officials inspect the businesses. did.
But Birnkrant argues that Monday's closure is too late to be effective.
“This is all incredibly reckless. Governor Hochul must close these markets immediately and close in the near future until the avian flu crisis becomes more manageable,” she said in a statement. Ta. “Just opening a market in five days will ensure that more bird shipments will be re-caged once more birds have been infected with avian flu from the factory farm.”
Tiva was closed on Sunday saying there were signs in the empty cage and doors and would reopen on February 14th.
Pio Pio Poultry closed to the public on Sunday, with employees dropping off stores and running the spill down the street.
Two workers at Kikiriki Live Fallley Inc. in Bushwick, Brooklyn, which was still open on Sunday, have seen an increase in business since the executive announcement on Friday, with dozens of lives in stores. He told the Post that he expects the chicken stock to be sold. closure.
“All chickens disappear by the end of the day. They usually do,” one worker said.
The same workers said Kikiriki had not tested avian flu flocks and instead the tests would be handled by farmers and state inspectors.
Kikiriki was issued a warning notice from the USDA's Investigation, Enforcement and Audit Bureau in October 2022, but it was unclear what the violation was for or whether it was corrected. Watchdog found at least one chicken at the facility with bloody wounds “to the bone” during a previous visit, Birnkrant said.
There are 67 cases of avian flu in humans in the US, according to the CDC, as of Thursday, more than 150 million poultry and a herd of nearly 960 dairy cows have also been affected.
The New York City Health Department has instructed exposed individuals to monitor for signs of illness, including fever, cough, sore throat, vomiting and severe respiratory illness.
The news has been reported previously as more than dozens of ducks and wild birds have died at a New York City zoo. All civil servants remain open, and officials said there is little risk pose to humans.
“Living animal markets should be banned not only for the pure cruelty of forcing the last day of sick animals packed into cages and filth, but also for the serious public health risks they pose. ” said Bob Holden, a member of Queens City Council. Ridgewood is included.
“When avian flu rises, there is no good reason to allow these markets to operate in residential areas in densely populated urban environments,” added Holden.
Birnkrant said during a tour of Watchdog's regional live market on Saturday's trip to the lattice visit last January, he discovered that overcrowded birds were cannibalized.
“If they back up next week, they'll get the same sick birds from the same factory farms in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and upstate New York,” warned Billunkland.
“Nothing will change.”
