Agriculture

Daybreak directors may be prosecuted

Animal welfare group NSPCA is pursuing criminal charges against Daybreak’s directors after mass chicken deaths and alleged cruelty at the embattled poultry producer.

Animal welfare bodies intend making directors of poultry producer Daybreak criminally responsible for the suffering of chickens after the company ran out of money for food and staff.

Daybreak, once South Africa’s fifth largest poultry producer, is now in business rescue as it tries to avoid liquidation.

Officials from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) were called to Daybreak facilities last month and euthanised what they said were hundreds of thousands of starving chickens.

The NSPCA obtained a civil court judgment against Daybreak directors last month. The court ordered the company to stop inhumane culling methods and to ensure that chickens were fed.

Now the NSPCA says it has laid criminal charges of mass animal cruelty against the directors, Poultry News Africa reports.