Silent Killings: Bird Deaths and Animal Farming
by Jeremy Alcorn

During a conversation with a supervisor at a slaughterhouse I discovered that the waste lagoons from the holding pens utilized anaerobic decomposition to convert animal waste into methane. The methane is then used to power one of the boilers at the plant.

Apparently, this system utilizes vents to release gas into the atmosphere. After some research, my speculation is that the operation goes something like this. The lagoons produce methane which is piped into the engine of a boiler which uses it as a fuel. The engine creates exhaust gases as it runs the boiler. Rather than waste the heat from the exhaust gas it is reclaimed by routing it through a heating grid located in the lagoon. The heating grid helps to maintain an optimum temperature for the anaerobic process occurring there. The vents then likely serve one, or both, of the following purposes. If the temperature rises beyond ideal levels some gas could be vented so as to cool the lagoon. Also, once the exhaust gases have been used to heat the lagoon they will inevitably be released into the atmosphere.

Now back to my conversation. During cold months it is common for birds to accumulate around the lagoon and/or vents as a source of heat. The birds that gather around the vents suffocate in a very short time period. Further research indicated that some gases produced from methane production are deadly. Hydrogen sulfide, for instance, causes “rapid death” in humans at 600 ppm (parts per million) and at one third that level, 200 ppm, causes “possible pulmonary edema (water in the lungs) with breathing difficulties and possible loss of consciousness and death” in pigs [1]. Birds then would require significantly lower levels of hydrogen sulfide to cause their death. Whether this is what kills them or not I cannot say. The carbon dioxide present in the exhaust gas can also lead to suffocation when it is concentrated in high enough levels. Regardless of the cause, the effects are tragic.

Not only do slaughterhouses and factory farms cause the deaths of the animals they raise for slaughter everyday, but other species are killed through having come into contact with these industries. Because there exists no legislation concerning this area of production, slaughterhouses can blatantly disregard the scores of deaths created by their “green” energy. Does anyone yet wonder why it is that the animal use industry cannot regulate itself?

Works Cited

1 - Barker, James., et al. “Safety in Swine Production Systems.” North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Mar. 1996. 5 Dec. 2004 < http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/wqwm/pih104.html >.