Activists accuse NYC shops of selling ‘sickly’ chickens in scramble before bird-flu shutdown
It’s a fowl business.
Animal activists accused several Brooklyn and Queens markets of selling “sickly-looking” live chickens as they scrambled to clear inventory before a state-mandated shutdown due to the bird flu.
Animal advocacy group NYCLASS shared disturbing pictures they say show TIBA in Ridgewood, Queens selling three “visibly sickly-looking” Cornish cross-breed chickens with significant feather loss — one of three markets in the city they said exhibited stomach-turning conditions in recent days.
“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 the markets have not 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. Everybody is just flying blindly.”
Kikiriki Live Poultry, Inc. and Pio Pio Poultry, both in Bushwick, were also said to be keeping the birds in poor conditions in the weekend ahead of the shutdown.
The birds shown in the images were crammed into too-crowded cages with several chickens appearing to be dying, Birnkrant claimed.
An executive order issued Friday by Gov. Kathy Hochul mandated all live poultry markets in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County to temporarily shut until Feb. 14 after seven local cases of bird flu were discovered in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
The shops found to 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 shuttered for at least five days while state officials inspect the businesses.
Birnkrant, however, contends Monday’s shutdown is far too late to be effective.
“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.”
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 hosing down the store and funneling the runoff into the street.
Two workers at Kikiriki Live Poultry, Inc. in Bushwick, Brooklyn, which was still open Sunday, 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.
“All the chickens will be gone by the end of the day, they usually are,” one worker said, adding they were to close at 6 p.m. Sunday and open again on Feb. 15.
The same worker said Kikiriki doesn’t test its flock for bird flu, and testing is instead handled by farmers and state inspectors.
Kikiriki was issued a warning notice by the USDA’s Office of Investigation, Enforcement and Audit in October 2022, though it was unclear what the violation was for or if it was ever remedied. Watchdogs found at least one chicken at that establishment with a bloody wound “down to the bone” during a previous visit, Birnkrant said.
There are 67 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans in the US, the CDC said, with over 150 million poultry and nearly 960 dairy herds also affected as of Thursday.
The New York City Health Department has told exposed individuals to monitor for signs of illness, which could range from a fever, cough and sore throat or vomiting and severe respiratory disease.
The news comes as over a dozen ducks and wild birds died at a pair of New York City zoos, The Post previously reported. The parks all remain open, as officials said little risk is posed to humans.
“Live animal markets should be banned not only for the sheer cruelty of forcing sickly animals to live out their final days crammed in cages and filth but also for the serious public health risks they pose,” said Queens City Council member Bob Holden, whose jurisdiction includes Ridgewood.
“With avian flu on the rise, there is no justification for allowing these markets to operate in residential neighborhoods in a dense urban setting,” Holden added.
Birnkrant said her watchdogs’ tour of area live markets on Saturday parallels visits made in January of last year, which found birds in overcrowded cages being cannibalized.
“When they open back up next week, they’re gonna be getting the same sick birds from the same factory farms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and upstate New York,” Birnkrant warned.
“Nothing will have changed.”
