Our Appeal with undersigned organizations is posted here: www.upc-online.org/nfpa_appeal/. Please contact the NFPA to express your support for mandatory fire protection systems in farm animal housing facilities by sending an email to stds_admin@nfpa.org.

Karen Davis, PhD, President of United Poultry Concerns, will be speaking in front of the NFPA Standards Council in Massachusetts when they consider this matter on August 7th. Industry organizations will also be in attendance, including United Egg Producers, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, and the National Pork Producers Council. These & other agribusiness groups oppose the NFPA’s Amendment requiring producers to install sprinklers and smoke control systems in farm animal housing facilities. For example:

“The installation and maintenance of these sprinkler systems could easily entail billions of dollars in costs, and these costs are not balanced by sufficient fire risk management benefits for the animals and the producers’ operations.” (National Pork Producers Council to NFPA, July 9)

They prefer to let the animals and buildings burn up and collect the insurance.

Between March and July of 2012 alone, 528,000 chickens, turkeys and pigs suffocated and burned to death in U.S. farm animal houses, and these are just the publicly reported cases.

We are grateful to attorney David R. Simon for preparing and submitting our Appeal to the National Fire Protection Association – the world’s leading advocate of fire prevention.

To view our original alert & letter to the NFPA, go to Agribusiness Coalition Opposes Fire Safety Controls in Animal Confinement Facilities 19 July 2012