Farmer says his 61,000 chickens were euthanized as demand for eggs during pandemic drops
By Zack Budryk - 04/21/20 08:36 PM EDT
A Minnesota contract egg farmer said 61,000 of his chickens were euthanized amid falling demand for eggs.
Closures of schools, restaurants and caterers has trickled down to farming, affecting egg producers as well as demand for milk and ripe lettuce. Kerry Mergen, who works near Albany Minn., told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Daybreak Foods, which owned and paid to feed the chickens, made the decision after a fluid egg plant in Big Lake temporarily shut down last week and laid off 300 workers.
Mergen told the Star-Tribune a crew of about 15 workers arrived in the early hours of April 9 with carbon dioxide to euthanize the birds.
"They come in with carts, put them all in carts, wheel them up to the end, put a hose in that cart and gas them, then dump them over the edge into a conveyor and convey them up into semis and the semis haul them out," he said.
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https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/494027-farmer-says-his-61000-chickens-were-euthanized-as-demand-for
