Animal freedom campaigners and local residents are objecting to AWSM Farming’s application to upgrade an intensive chicken farm in Barningham, County Durham. The farm, which is just 260m from residential homes, holds 77,000 hens in three sheds.
The proposed upgrade includes the installation of an incinerator, a development that has sparked significant concerns. This incinerator is intended to burn the bodies of up to 15 chickens per hour, a practice that many find distressing and environmentally harmful.
Planning documents submitted by AWSM reveal that intensive chicken farming causes odour emissions from livestock during transportation and from livestock in housing, as well as emissions linked to the diet of the livestock, the ventilation systems, hen litter, washing down, and carcass storage and disposal.
Residents are concerned about the increasing intensification of chicken farming. The Soil Association declared that ten British rivers are likely to become ‘dead zones’ as a direct result of the runoff caused by ‘washing down’ chicken units.
Local residents are also concerned about the noise and impact of protests on the idyllic area. A Facebook group with 1,000 members, called MBR Suppliers, which claims AWSM are connected to the Cambridgeshire based puppy farm MBR Acres, is already calling for protests should the plans be approved. MBR Acres breeds 2,000 dogs every year for British research facilities, and is home to the world’s longest running animal testing protest camp.
‘I eat meat, but I simply cannot stand to see this industrial style of farming invading the countryside. It is barbaric to think that 77,000 birds can be crammed into three sheds, and then their bodies thrown into an incinerator when they stop being of value. This isn’t farming, it’s a factory of horrors. My family have lived here for generations, and my grandmother would roll in her grave if she saw what has happened here.’
Sally Fields, a local resident
Our focus is on closing down MBR Acres, a puppy farm who breed 2,000 dogs every year for British laboratories. AWSM provide a vital service to MBR; disposing of their sawdust and faeces. We will certainly be holding protests at this chicken farm if this planning permission is granted. Any company who deals with MBR Acres will also have to deal with us.’
Johnny Loach, from Free the MBR Beagles
Objections can be made at: https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/psc/dl11-7eb-saunders-house-farm-ltd-epr-wp3024sg-a001/
