NYC Shops Accused of Selling ‘Sickly’ Chickens Before Bird-Flu Shutdown

By: Serach Nissim

Animal activists have accused several Brooklyn and Queens markets of quickly selling off “sickly-looking” live chickens, to clear inventory before the state-mandated shutdown due to the bird flu.

As reported by the NY Post, animal advocacy group NYCLASS exposed disturbing pictures they say show one market selling three “visibly sickly-looking” Cornish cross-breed chickens with significant feather loss. The purported images are from TIBA in Ridgewood, Queens, which is one of three New York City markets which activists say displayed stomach-turning conditions in recent days. The other two markets, Kikiriki Live Poultry, Inc. and Pio Pio Poultry, both in Brooklyn’s Bushwick, were also targeted by the activists who cited poor conditions for the birds over the weekend leading to the shutdown.

“I absolutely do suspect that many of these birds could and most likely do have avian flu,” NYCLASS executive director Edita Birnkrant told The Post, though none of the three markets have had any birds with positive tests. “There’s only been a handful of testing done, [and] there are 80 markets with thousands and thousands of birds delivered every single week.”

On Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order mandating all live poultry markets in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County to temporarily shut until Feb. 14. The directive came after there were seven local cases of bird flu reported in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, the Post reported. The shops which were found to actually have infected birds were ordered to be “depopulated,” sanitized and reopened after successful inspections. Shops without positive bird flu cases were told to sell down all their inventory until Monday, then disinfect and stay closed for at least five days while state officials inspect their businesses.

Birnkrant, however, says Monday’s shutdown is too late and too little. “This is all outrageously reckless. Governor Hochul must close these markets down immediately and for the foreseeable future until the bird flu crisis is manageable,” she said in a statement.

“Merely opening the markets back up in five days guarantees that shipments of more birds infected with bird flu from factory farms will end up in cages again.”

Per the Post, TIBA was closed Sunday with empty cages and a sign on the door saying it would reopen on Feb. 14. Pio Pio Poultry was closed to the public on Sunday, with employees having hosed down the store. On Sunday, Kikiriki Live Poultry, Inc. in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was still open. Two workers there told The Post that business has increased since Friday’s executive announcement, and its inventory of dozens of live chickens at the store were expected to be sold off by closing time at 6 p.m. “All the chickens will be gone by the end of the day, they usually are,” one worker said, adding they would open again on Feb. 15.

Throughout the U.S., there are 67 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans, the CDC said, with more than 150 million poultry and about 960 dairy herds also affected as of Thursday. The New York City Health Department has told exposed individuals to monitor for signs of illness.