[Sca-cooks] Fwd: Odd story

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

Finnebhir asked me to forward this:

>Farmers Baffled by Chicken Deaths
>By KIMBERLY HEFLING
>
>HENDERSON, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky farmers are locking barns, shutting gates
>and checking their chicks more often after vandals apparently killed about
>75,000 chickens on two farms.
>
>Investigators say ventilation fans were shut off at the farms last month,
>suffocating the tightly packed broilers and causing a loss of at least
>$60,000. There have been no arrests.
>
>The cases are believed to be the first of their kind in Kentucky and for
>Tyson Foods Inc., which owned the chickens.
>
>``It's senseless and certainly a waste,'' said Ed Nicholson, spokesman for
>Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson. ``Whoever did it knew what they were doing.
>They knew turning off those fans would endanger the birds in the houses.''
>
>The first case killed 55,000 chicks in the Crittenden County town of
>Marion. The second, three weeks later, left 23,000 birds dead in the
>McLean County town of Beech Grove, which is 50 miles from Marion.
>
>Trooper Mark Applin of the Kentucky State Police said it did not appear
>the two cases are connected.
>
>But Laura John, executive director of the Kentucky Poultry Federation and
>the Kentucky Egg Council, said she suspects a link.
>
>``At this point it's hard to believe they're not connected in the way it's
>occurred,'' she said.
>
>The federation, Tyson and the Kentucky Farm Bureau are offering a $10,000
>reward to anyone with information that leads to convictions.
>
>``It's never happened in the state before and I hope it doesn't happen
>again,'' said Tony Pescatore, a University of Kentucky poultry specialist.
>
>Behind horses, the poultry and egg industry is Kentucky's second-biggest
>agricultural commodity, bringing in $603 million in 2001, John said.
>
>The industry has grown in Kentucky in the last decade, but so has
>criticism. Environmentalists and some who live near farms have complained
>about the smell and waste produced. Others say the birds are mistreated.
>
>In Marion, there has been a legal fight for years to keep chicken farming
>away from a neighborhood development.
>
>McLean County agriculture extension agent Greg Henson said he does not
>think anyone involved with an organization opposed to the industry would
>kill chickens.
>
>``I'd never expect them to do something like that,'' Henson said. ``My
>thinking was that it was local vandalism.''
>
>On the Net:
>
>http://www.tyson.com
>
>