Page 21 - Hillside Anniversay Newsletter

2003 Giving water to the suffering and dying
presence of these helpless birds, alway
to me the grim reality of the plight of
others in Britain’s heartless farming ind

The Christmas Turkey...

In September 2003, we investigated conditions at a farm belonging to tu
Cherryridge Poultry, who were also part of the RSPCA’s Freedom Food
had visited three years earlier to find appalling conditions and were shoc
that things had deteriorated even further. Not only were many birds lin
for days with horrific head and body injuries from severe head pecking,
the turkeys were also contending with a serious infestation of flies. We
the cause of that - pits full of dead turkeys left to rot in a heaving sea of

I tried to alleviate some of the turkeys’ suffering by offering them water
were already dying as their injuries had prevented them from getting to
drinkers. Other birds were dragging themselves around on painful, swol
deformed joints. Those who were not so badly affected still had to endu
stinking conditions, unavoidably breathing in the stifling stench of ammo

At this point we did not know who to contact. DEFRA had simply deni
problem when previous offending sites had been reported to them. Tra
and the RSPCA had always had a similar attitude. In the case of the Che
turkeys, we contacted TESCO, whose shelves these turkeys were destine
asking if they would like to accompany us and see the true conditions u
they were purchasing their produce. They declined...

Finally, in conjunction with the BBC’s ‘Food Police’, we submitted our ev
Trading Standards who then went on, again, to simply cover up the atroc

Below, the appalling conditions we found at Cherryridge Poultry.