Fw: (TW) Activists condemn chicken slaughter

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Taipei Times

Activists condemn chicken slaughter

 

HEALTH THREAT: The nation's traditional markets lack both the facilities and

the equipment to cleanly kill and process the millions of chickens sold

there

each year

By Chiu Yu-Tzu

STAFF REPORTER

Thursday, Feb 27, 2003,Page 2

 

Poultry vendors slaughter chickens in a traditional wet market. Members of

the

Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan held a press conference in Taipei

yesterday to criticize the Council of Agriculture and related agencies for

not

enforcing more sanitary chicken-slaughtering conditions.

PHOTO: THE ENVIRONMENT AND ANIMAL SOCIETY OF TAIWAN (EAST)

 

Public health is being jeopardized by unsound slaughter regulations which

allow

the consumption of nearly 4 million unhealthy chickens a year, activists

from

animal conservation and environmental groups said yesterday.

 

The activists told a press conference in Taipei that the 170 million

domestic

chickens consumed each year in this country are slaughtered in traditional

markets under unhygienic conditions.

 

They said only 5 percent of the poultry are electrically slaughtered under

conditions that meet the Chinese Agricultural Standards (CAS), a system that

ensures the safety of agricultural products.

 

In the US, the activists said, about 2.3 percent of inferior slaughtered

poultry meat would be thrown out.

 

" It implies that each year 3.91 million unhealthy chickens, which deserve to

be

thrown away, are eaten by consumers, " said Chen Yu-min, director of the

Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST,).

 

EAST members spent months making a documentary about chicken slaughtering in

traditional markets -- and they said they were appalled by the lack of

division

between live chickens and killed ones.

 

" Most chickens have their throats cruelly cut by sharp knives and then are

thrown into boiling water to remove their feathers before they have even

breathed their last breath, " said Shih Wu-hung, an EAST activist.

 

Displaying photos and videotapes, activists said that waste-water

contaminated

by chicken giblets, feathers, chicken feces and blood was arbitrarily

discharged in the markets.

 

" If the government doesn't regulate the slaughter of chickens, we're afraid

that bird flu will hit Taiwan sooner or later, " Chen said.

 

Two cases of bird flu reported in Hong Kong last week raised fears of

another

epidemic such as the one in 1997 that killed six people, forced the mass

slaughter of millions of birds in the territory and briefly caused alarm

about

the possibility of a global epidemic.

 

Chen said that the bird flu virus is likely contracted by direct contact

with

chicken feces.

 

Jong De-shien, associate professor of animal science at the National Taiwan

University, told the press conference that a clear division is required at

slaughtering plants between chicken carcasses, the gutted internal organs

and

waste matter.

 

Chen also said the frequent smuggling of poultry and agricultural products

between Taiwan, China and Hong Kong have made this nation very vulnerable.

 

Chen criticized the government for excluding chicken slaughtering from the

Husbandry Law, which took effect in June 1998. The law regulates the

slaughter

of cattle, sheep and pigs.

 

The activists said that the Control Yuan should investigate the Council of

Agriculture (COA) for its neglecting duties.

 

The COA's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine issued

a

press release yesterday afternoon, noting that 160 million broilers being

slaughtered each year are examined and, on average, about 3 percent of them

were discarded for not meeting standards.

 

The statement said that since last year the bureau has promoted the

electronic

slaughter of chickens and provides technical assistance to people who want

to

establish new slaughter houses.

 

The statement did not address the request to include poultry slaughter in

the

Husbandry Law.