They’re not clucking around.
Animal activists blasted a plan to open an organic egg farm with 6,000 chicken on Long Island — calling it a “factory’ that could be a legitimate public health risk.
The activists joined the fight against the proposed egg farm in rural Southold, which has ruffled the feathers of residential neighbors who want the plan plucked from consideration over noise, odor and environmental concerns.
“Six thousand chickens on a single property isn’t a farm — it’s a factory,” John Di Leonardo, Humane Long Island’s executive director, told The Post.
The property, purchased by Grant Callahan, the founder of Rejuvenate Farms, last May for $650,000, would house thousands of chickens to produce “organic” eggs if the proposal is passed, according to town records, a 2022 real estate listing and Callahan’s LinkedIn.
But that description didn’t fly with Di Leonardo, who dismissed terms like “organic” and “pasture-raised” as marketing jargon — and said the farm could soon be home to a facility where suffering is “built into the business model.”
He claimed such facilities could engage in practices such as killing day-old male chicks because they can’t lay eggs, severing the sensitive ends of birds’ beaks, and slaughtering hens once their bodies are “spent” at just a fraction of their natural lifespan.
He also explained that organic standards even restrict animals from receiving antibiotics when they’re sick, and with avian flu already spreading throughout the country, Di Leonardo warned that “concentrating thousands more birds near homes” is both a public health risk and an animal welfare crisis.
“An industrial-scale egg facility threatens not only animals and public health, but also neighboring farms that will suffer from odors, pests, disease risks, and damage to the area’s reputation,” Di Leonardo said.
“Southold should be protecting its existing agricultural community — including wineries, vineyards, and small farms that define the region’s character and tourism economy — not factory farming disguised with buzzwords,” the activist added.