Victory! Chicken Slaughterhouse Shut Out of Town
In a resounding victory, the Long Island town of Islip, New York, has denied chicken killer Joseph Rosario’s application to build a chicken slaughterhouse there.
He had wanted to open a live market, with hundreds of chickens crated on site until they were purchased and slaughtered. But Islip’s zoning ordinance expressly prohibits the “live storage of poultry” in the district of the denied operation. Rosario had asked for a “special exception” to the ordinance.
PETA, Long Island Orchestrating for Nature (LION), and Brooklyn-Queens Animal Save campaigned hard against the proposed live market and slaughterhouse with spirited protests, objections by hundreds of opponents who turned out for town board meetings, an urgent letter to town officials, and more. The groups showed video footage taken by Brooklyn-Queens Animal Save at Rosario’s other chicken slaughterhouse, which revealed that hundreds of unattended birds were crammed into crates in freezing and deplorable conditions alongside many others who were already dead.
“Chickens are wonderful, intelligent animals with complex social structures and remarkable memories, yet each year, billions of lives are reduced to pain and misery in slaughterhouses across the country—something that local residents won’t see happening on their street. PETA and LION ask everyone to spare animals’ lives by going vegan and thank local officials for keeping a filthy facility out of their beautiful town,” said John Di Leonardo, a Long Island resident, manager at PETA, and president of LION.
This victory means less suffering for some of the most abused animals on the planet. We’ll keep working until the number of slaughterhouses is zero, and you can help. Order vegan starter kits to leave in literature racks, in airplane seat pockets, on community bulletin boards, and anywhere else people may pick them up and be inspired to live compassionately. You can also use PETA’s rapid-action page to quickly speak up for birds abused for meat and eggs.
