Thousands of chickens 'baked' to death on 'hottest day' in UK, farm blames freak weather

The poultry birds died at the Moy Park farm enclosure as temperature touched a lethal 102 degrees Fahrenheit on July 25

PUBLISHED JUL 31, 2019

TRENT, LINCOLNSHIRE: Distressing and disturbing images showing "thousands" of dead chickens baked to death in a poultry farm on the hottest day ever in the UK have been doing the rounds since the incident on July 25. The poultry birds got killed due to temperature touching a lethal 102 degrees Fahrenheit on the day at Moy Park farm located in Newton on Trent, Lincolnshire.

As per reports, workers could be seen removing the dead birds in wheelbarrows after their bodies had piled up. The firm which was in charge of the farm supplies poultry meat to UK supermarket giants such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco. In September 2018, Moy Park was given an international management certification. The company calls itself the "European Food Company of Choice." A worker shared with The Lincolnite that the staff had spent many days collecting the animals from the warehouses.

The worker said, "We tried to do everything but there was nothing more we could do. The freak weather has done this to them. Please don’t turn this into anything bad. It has been really tough carting these animals out of the farm over the past couple of days. Animal activists don’t think we care about them, but we really do."

Animal rights activist Mike Bushby took to social media to write about the thousands of birds that died at the farm. He wrote, "These hens (1000s of them) died during (Thursday’s) heatwave. Can you imagine how much they suffered?" It has also been reported that Moy Park processes around 280 million chickens every year.

A spokesperson for the farm shared with The Independent, "We are working closely with our farming partners to monitor the situation and have implemented procedures to help protect our birds against the extreme heat." The spokesperson did not go into detail about exactly how many birds had died from the heat or whether any had survived.

Met Office analysts said Cambridge, which is a 90-minute drive from the farm, had recorded a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit on the day.

Compassion in World Farming, an animal welfare organization, said poultry birds reared for meat were usually confined to industrial, barren sheds where the birds cannot avoid the heat as they would in natural conditions. Echoing this, a critic tweeted, "No excuse. Technology exists to cool buildings like this to keep the inside at a comfortable temperature. Even on normal summer days, those tin boxes must be uncomfortable. Yes, it would cost money, but I’m guessing consumers would sooner pay more than see stories like this.”