After years of operating horrific battery hen egg factories, where millions of hens are barely able to move inside tiny, crowded cages, Buckeye Egg Farm, Ohio's largest egg company, has been ordered to close!
The Ohio Department of Agriculture told Buckeye it has to begin closing its battery sheds, due to years of violating its operating permits and breaking environmental regulations. Buckeye Farm is appealing the decision and has been granted a temporary stay of the shutdown order. Buckeye Egg Farm has claimed they would have to "bury" chickens in landfills if they have to close two barns a week.
In 2000, when Farm Sanctuary rescued 1,500 hens from a Buckeye facility that was hit by a tornado, neither the government nor the company did what was necessary to ensure animals did not suffer. After hundreds of thousands of birds suffered without food, water or shelter for 15 days, the company bulldozed the cages and buried the birds alive. Please insist that the nearly 15 million hens imprisoned within Buckeye's walls not be made to suffer any more because of this company's wrongdoing! Please send polite, insistent letters to:
The Honorable Bob Taft
Governor of Ohio
77 South High Street, 30th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6117
Fax: 614-466-9354
The Honorable Fred L. Dailey
Director,
Department of Agriculture
8995 East Main Street
Reynoldsburg, OH 43068
Fax: 614-466-6124
*Urge them to allow enough time for every bird to be treated humanely. Ask that rescue groups such as Farm Sanctuary be permitted to recover as many birds as possible. Insist that any birds who must be destroyed be humanely euthanized. No cruel approach is acceptable.
Homes for Chickens Needed!
If the Buckeye Egg Farm agrees to release birds to animal protection groups, we must be ready to launch a massive rescue and adoption effort immediately. If you can provide a safe, loving, permanent home for rescued Buckeye hens, please contact us. Adopter must be willing to drive to a hen rescue center if adopting smaller numbers of birds - or Farm Sanctuary will help pay for the transport of birds that are being adopted in groups of 100 or more. Adopters must complete an adoption application, available online at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/adopt/form4.htm . For further information, please e-mail: shelter@farmsanctuary.org or call 607-583-2225 ext. 221.
United Poultry Concerns, Inc.