Fowl play: Villagers help themselves to chicken abandoned by poultry farms

Such was the frenzy it caused that the news brought people from neighbouring villages who rushed in to help themselves to the bounty. Behind this bizarre story is the tale of woes of poultry farmers, who have been hit hard by rumours that went viral on social media linking the consumption of chicken to the spread of coronavirus. Though authorities and experts have repeatedly debunked the rumours, it has had little effect in the market – the retail price of chicken crashed to less than Rs 30 in just two weeks or so.

Even after the drastic dip, there are very few takers for the meat. Due to this, the poultry farms suffered heavy losses, to the point of being unable to even continue feeding the fowls till the price picked up.

According to sources, somefarms that could not feed the birds arranged made arrangements toabandon about 1,000 birds in vacant areas outside the farm.

On Thursday morning, villagers of Kilkuppam and Udayamuthur found hundreds of birds near their irrigation tanks. After getting over their initial bewilderment, dozens of men and women began grabbing all the chicken they could to take home. With so many birds still left, they called in their relatives from nearby areas, asking them to come there at the earliest.

Soon, people from two nearby villages – Mankuppam and Puratharvattam – rushed to the spot and took home chicken. The whole drama continued till around 11 am, by which time almost all the birds were caught.

This was reminiscent of the case when emu farms had a quick rise and quicker fall, pushing dozens of persons who launched the farm into deep financial crisis. Finding it impossible to rear the birds, several of them let the emus from their farms on to the road, many of which were run over by vehicleson highways.