Factory Farm Objection! Stop 50,000-Bird Chicken Farm

A planning application has been submitted for a huge industrial chicken farm housing up to 49,000 birds at a time near Lough Neagh, one of Northern Ireland’s most precious and already severely polluted waterways.

© Andrew Skowron / We Animals

If approved, this proposal would condemn tens of thousands of chickens at a time to terrifying, painful lives and violent deaths, while creating pollution, public health risks, and damage to the environment. Tell Mid Ulster District Council that you object!

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Chickens Are Individuals

Chickens are thinking, feeling individuals. Each one has their own personality, preferences and strong desire to live. They form friendships, recognise faces, enjoy dust bathing and sunbathing, and communicate using a rich range of vocalisations.

Yet chickens are the most intensively farmed land animals on earth. In the UK alone, over a billion are killed every year, most after lives spent confined indoors in huge numbers, denied the opportunity to enjoy even the most basic natural behaviours.

Short, Painful Lives and Terrifying Deaths

Chicks bred for meat are selectively bred to grow at an unnaturally fast rate. Their bodies struggle to cope, causing health problems including leg deformities, heart failure and breathing difficulties. Many birds become lame or immobile, unable to access food or water.

The sheds quickly fill with waste. High levels of ammonia from decomposing faeces burn birds’ eyes, lungs, legs and feet, leaving them in constant pain. Those who collapse are forced to sit in their own excrement until they die or are killed.

Chickens are killed when they are around six weeks old. They are loaded into crates, transported to slaughterhouses and either gassed or shackled upside down, stunned – often improperly – and have their throats cut. Thousands die during transport every year alone due to stress, injury and exposure.

Threats to Public Health

Industrial poultry units housing tens of thousands of stressed animals are well documented breeding grounds for disease.

Avian influenza continues to devastate farming systems across the UK and Ireland, resulting in the killing of millions of birds. Local councils have a moral duty to resist planning applications for farms that increase the risk of future outbreaks and associated risks to public health.

Environmental Damage and Lough Neagh Pollution

Animal agriculture is a leading driver of environmental destruction – and intensive poultry farming is a major contributor to nutrient pollution in rivers and lakes. During rainfall events or if a manure storage unit fails for example, contaminants such as manure slurry, phosphorus, nitrogen, and bacteria can move rapidly from field-spread manure or leaking storage into nearby waterways.

Lough Neagh is already suffering from severe ecological degradation due to nutrient overload. The addition of another intensive poultry installation nearby risks worsening water pollution.

The region does not need further pressure on an ecosystem already at breaking point.

Take Action

Mid Ulster District Council must reject this proposal. Sign our petition today – you have until Monday, 20 April, at 1pm BST to do so. 

Please use your full name and email. Invalid entries will be removed from the petition. Please note that the council may publish your name along with comments related to this application.
 

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Sign the Petition Today

UN MIS Petition Description Text - *Important Note* You must UNLINK this shared library component before making page-specific customizations.

To: Cllr Christine McFlynn, Mid Ulster District Council

Re: Planning application LA09/2026/0163/F

Dear Ms McFlynn, 

We are writing to object to the planning application seeking permission for the erection of an intensive poultry unit housing up to 49,000 birds at any one time.

We urge the council to refuse this application for the following reasons:

•    Odour and quality of life: Operations at the site, including the accumulation of animal waste and disposal of dead birds, are likely to generate strong and persistent odours. Intensive livestock rearing falls within the most offensive and moderately offensive odour categories and would negatively impact nearby residents.

•    Air pollution and ammonia emissions: Large scale poultry farming produces significant ammonia emissions, which can harm air quality, human health, wildlife and surrounding habitats.

•    Traffic and infrastructure impacts: The site would require frequent movements of heavy goods vehicles transporting feed, animals and waste. Increased traffic would add pressure to local roads, increase emissions, and raise the risk of accidents.

•    Environmental harm: Animal agriculture is a major contributor to the climate and biodiversity crises. Approving new intensive animal farms exacerbates the climate emergency and the worst affects of climate change.  

•    Water pollution risks: Run off from poultry units is a recognised contributor to nutrient pollution. With Lough Neagh already ecologically degraded, any development that risks increasing nutrient loading in the catchment should be refused.

•    Public health concerns: Large scale poultry facilities heighten the risk of disease outbreaks, including avian influenza. Councils have a responsibility to prevent developments that pose foreseeable risks to public health.

•    Animal welfare and sentience: The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act recognises animals as living, feeling beings. Chickens raised on this site would endure severe confinement, debilitating health problems caused by selective breeding, chronic pain from ammonia soaked litter and a violent death at just a few weeks old.

For these reasons, we respectfully ask the council to reject this application and prioritise the protection of animals, local communities, public health and the environment.

Yours sincerely,
 

Act Now

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