
Filename:
WAM30705
Headline:
A weak and wet turkey poult stands closed-eyed amid thick firefighting foam that also covers their dead flockmates. Following the detection of avian influenza in the turkey flock at this Israeli kibbutz, authorities used compressed firefighting foam to mass-suffocate the birds, claiming it to be the most efficient and humane method of extermination. Visible were numerous birds slowly dying or conscious after the foam's application. State of Israel, 2016. Glass Walls / We Animals
Description:
In December 2016, a highly pathogenic avian inluenza (HPAI) infection was detected in this turkey flock living on an Israeli kibbutz, and authorities proceeded to use wet compressed firefighting foam to mass-suffocate the entire flock. Though the authorities claimed foam was the quickest and most humane extermination method, it did not kill all the animals effectively. After the foam's application, the twisted and soaked bodies of birds, some still alive, lay collapsed in heaps across the barn floor. Visible were semi- or entirely conscious birds, suffering as they struggled or slowly drowned in the wet foam. Young birds attempted to escape while other distressed birds huddled nearby, drenched. As of 2023, compressed firefighting foams are used in numerous countries as an industry-accepted method to mass-exterminate poultry as HPAI continues to impact birds in Israel and worldwide.
In late 2016, HPAI was discovered in the poultry flocks of several kibbutzim and moshavim in Israel's western and southern areas. According to World Organization For Animal Health reports, the 2016 outbreak in Israel was a new HPAI strain and the tenth outbreak since the virus was first reported in the country in 2006, with outbreaks occurring nearly annually in the ensuing ten years. Despite Israeli authorities killing more than 329,000 domestic poultry birds in 2016 to stop the spread of the virus, HPAI returned to the country several more times in subsequent years, with authorities blaming migrating wild birds for its repeated occurrence.
Area of Focus:
Food Systems,Farmed Animals
Supplemental categories:
Factory Farming, Slaughter, Turkeys, Culls, Food Systems
Country:
State of Israel
Photographer/Filmmaker:
Roee Shpernik
Credit:
Glass Walls / We Animals
Year:
2016
License Type(s):
Non-Commercial Use, Commercial Use
Release status:
No release
WA Keywords:
- agriculture
- alive
- animal
- animal agriculture
- animal farm
- animal news
- Asia
- asphyxiation
- barn
- bird
- bird flu
- building
- cold
- contagious disease
- copy space
- culling
- day
- death
- despair
- domestic turkey
- dying
- Eurasia
- factory farm
- factory farming
- farm
- farm animal
- farmed animal
- farming
- floor
- foamy
- illness
- indoors
- industry
- infection
- killing
- landfowl
- Middle East
- poultry farm
- poultry farming
- standing
- State of Israel
- temperature
- turkey (bird)
- turkey farm
- turkey farming
- WAMbirdflu
- weakness
- wet
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