​Locals up in arms over chicken farm expansion

May 7, 2016

​Locals up in arms over chicken farm expansion

Poultry company D B Chicks have submitted a request to the Auckland Council to increase the size of their Parkhurst broiler farm by 160,000 chickens. Photo: Alex McKenzie

Opposition is growing in a Helensville community over plans to expand an extensive broiler chicken farm by nearly 40 per cent.

Poultry company D B Chicks, who own the farm on South Head Road, have submitted a request to the Auckland Council to increase the size of their operation from 400,000 to 560,000 chickens.

Helensville local Alex Flowers said the issue of odour from the farm is already a concern for some in the community.

“The smell is already atrocious and the thought of it being increased is horrible,” she said.

Ms Flowers is also worried the expansion will create more truck traffic on South Head Road and increase congestion along State Highway 16.

“The other issue is, it’s not going to be good for the environment,” she added. “There’s going to be flow [of effluent] directly into the Kaipara Harbour.”

Ms Flowers has started an online petition on change.org to stop farm expansion plans. It has received 724 signatures and has a goal of 1000.

“We’re hoping that the council see everything that the community is saying and all the signatures that we’re getting and take that into consideration when making their decision,” said Ms Flowers.

Many of the petition supporters have similar concerns about the smell and the potential congestion. Some are also worried about alleged animal cruelty related to the conditions the chickens are kept in.

Animal rights activist Deirdre Sims said broiler chickens are selectively bred and given hormones, which make them grow from a chick to adult size for slaughter in five weeks.

Ms Sims has been an activist for the discontinuation of caged chickens for egg production, but said the issue of chickens farmed for meat is more complicated.

“With egg chickens we can ask for the government to get rid of cages, but for meat chickens it’s much harder because even if you get them free range they still have this rapid growth which is required for the industry,” she said.

“If you see a five-week old broiler chick up close they’ve still got blue eyes, they still cheep like baby chickens,” she said. “People call them Frankenstein chickens.”

Ms Sims is meeting with other animal rights activists this weekend to discuss what they can do to help stop the expansion.

Auckland Council are taking public submissions on the proposed expansion until May 10.

Helen Horgan, council resource consents administrator, said on Thursday that only four public submissions on the proposal had been received.

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