AR-News: Re: Question?????

Mon Mar 29 21:02:42 EST 2004

Thanks, Peter, Here it is below:

PeterMuller wrote:

> I have no idea why the submission hasn't posted.
> Please submit it again and cc me.
>
> Peter

Subject:
         Please HELP RESCUE the BLUEBERRY CHICKENS
    Date:
         Sun, 28 Mar 2004 02:13:48 -0400
   From:
         LP <spinkat at ca.inter.net>
     To:
         ar-news at envirolink.org

PLEASE CROSS-POST

(contacts to write to below)

The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPPrint/LAC/20040326/CHICKENS26/TPNational/

B.C. couple cry foul over chicken cull
Disinfection to combat avian influenza could jeopardize farm's organic
status
By MARK HUME
UPDATED AT 1:53 AM EST  Friday, Mar. 26, 2004

ABBOTSFORD -- Chris Croner is wishing he'd lied, because if he had, if
he'd hidden his small flock of chickens from the federal agents scouring
the avian flu hot zone in the Fraser Valley, his friends Lulu and Nellie
might not be facing death now.
"I told the truth. Now I'm going to be punished," a distraught Mr.
Croner said yesterday, as he contemplated an edict from the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency that has condemned to death all the chickens in a
high-risk zone near Abbotsford.
When CFIA agents came to his door on March 20 and asked if he had any
chickens, he told them he had. They called yesterday to tell him they
were coming back to kill them, as part of a drastic attempt to stop the
spread of avian flu, first detected last month.
Lulu, Nellie, Jack and Jill and 36 other birds raised by hand and named
by Mr. Croner and his partner, Jennifer Cichanovich, are to be rounded
up and destroyed along with 265,000 other birds in the area. Some 90,000
have already been killed. Most of those birds were from 10 huge poultry
farms, five of which were confirmed to have avian flu outbreaks, but the
government's edict is so sweeping it includes all chickens in the zone,
even those considered pets.
Mr. Croner, a former road manager for musician Jimi Hendrix and the
creator of rocker Frank Zappa's light shows, runs an organic blueberry
farm with Ms. Cichanovich.
The couple save "burned-out" chickens from the big poultry farms in the
area, rehabilitate them and turn them loose in the blueberry patch to
pluck weeds and eat insects.
Their diligent practices have made Matsqui Blue Farms the supplier of
some of the most coveted organic blueberries on the West Coast, featured
in Starbucks coffee outlets from B.C. to Oregon, and in high-end grocery
stores such as Vancouver's Capers Community Markets.
But the outbreak of a highly contagious avian flu in the Abbotsford
area, centred on an agricultural plain known as Matsqui Prairie, has
doomed the farm's small flock -- and perhaps put at risk the operation's
organic certification, because the chicken coop will be disinfected
after the birds are killed.
"This could be jeopardized, our whole livelihood. I mean to go back and
start over again, you've got to be five years chemically free and this
has always been an organic farm. It's a sad situation. We don't know who
to talk to or where to turn," Mr. Croner said.
He and Ms. Cichanovich said the most distressing thing for them is that
the birds they have come to love will be gassed, and their bodies
disposed of by CFIA officials who are systematically working their way
through the zone.
"They are our pets," Mr. Croner said.
"We saved them out of chicken barns where they can't even walk because
they've been in cages all their lives. We teach them how to walk, and
they do all of our weeding in the fields. You know, we are pretty
attached to them."
Ms. Cichanovich fought back tears as she described growing up on the
farm where she was born and which she inherited from her father.
"I've been raising chickens here since I was a kid," she said. "They are
burned-out chickens when we get them; . . . some don't even have
feathers. Now they are so beautiful . . . they are our workers; they are
our pals. We talk to them every day."
Asked if she could imagine her farm without chickens, Ms. Cichanovich
gasped.
"It's devastation. I feel like I want to cry," she said.
"If the chickens were sick I'd be all for this. But they came and did
blood tests and the chickens are all healthy.
"We are a long way from any of those chicken barns. I don't know why
this has to happen."
Mr. Croner said he couldn't believe it when he heard on the news
yesterday morning that a chicken kill had been ordered for the
six-square-kilometre zone where avian flu had been detected in a cluster
of five poultry farms.
"I had to call about eight different people to find out [what's
happening]. Nobody wanted to be the leader.
"I ended up talking with this guy and he says, 'Yeah, you're in the
zone. We're going to get your chickens, and if you hide them there's a
fine . . . and we're going to find them.' It's sad because these are a
part of our trip at the farm . . . they are healthy and they lay
beautiful eggs."
Cornelius Kiley, regional veterinarian officer for the food inspection
agency, said all chickens in the zone are to be killed. "No exceptions,"
he said.
Pet birds will be spared, but the agency's definition of pets is narrow.

"Pet birds that are strictly pet birds, that are within the home, like
budgies and canaries, they are not part of the order. They are not known
to be a part of the problem, the world over, in dealing with avian
influenza. They are not considered to be a risk But outside chickens
that exist in outside flocks, then they are part of the order," Dr.
Kiley said yesterday.
Asked why healthy birds are being killed, he replied: "We have five
farms that are a grouping of farms together, where we now know that this
avian influenza virus has spread. We have depopulated four of those
farms, and the fifth farm will begin this afternoon The decision made
yesterday, in full co-operation with the industry, was to pre-emptively
remove these birds as a potential fuel for further spread of the virus.
"This is a control measure that has been taken, which is consistent with
how avian influenza has been tackled in other parts of North America and
the world over."
Mr. Croner said he is still hoping that someone will intervene to save
his flock.
"This is going to be really sad for us when they come and take these
birds away," he said.

PLEASE Contact and ask these chickens to be spared:

Richard B. Fadden, President, Canadian Food Inspection Agency:
fadden at inspection.gc.ca    Fax:  613-228-6608

The Honourable Bob Speller, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Fax:  613-759-1081

Dr. Cornelius Kiley, Regional Veterinarian for BC Interior
Kielyc at inspection.gc.ca    Fax:  604-666-1963