General Chat

If you want to see the state of modern intensive poultry farming take a look at the videos on the CIWF site - it shows chickens in Germany but it's much the same elsewhere unfortunately.

last saturday i bought a chicken to cook for sunday dinnert,that same evening whilst pre- heating the oven for a pie. the oven blew up, something to do with the fan i think is that an OMEN or what.was i not supposed to eat that chicken.

The flu out break does not bother me too much.But I will not buy Bernard Matthew turkeys again because of how they are reared. I never thought that so many could be kept in one building. Sheila

oh no i cooked BM mini kievs tonight, come to think of it i cooked chicken pops too,

' is sneezing the first symptom of bird flu'lol gwen

Gwen i feel there is no need for panick.....lets just say bernard matthews products are off the menuxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx((((:

Does anyone know symptoms of bird flu? only I keep feeling a bit peckish....ha,ha. Sorry couldn't resist that joke - Carol

i been sneezing all day and i had chicken wrapped in bacon for tea yesterday

thank-you every-one, some reasuring and interesting comments i agree with the point made regarding this government though, i just would'nt trust them myself. cheer's peep's you've been fab congratulations tracy.

It is a joke 'grown slower' means nothing at all. Even so called 'free range' birds are factory farmed. It is just that they keep the door open in case any want to wander outside. Personally I don't particularly like poultry at the best of times, and the manner in which they are bred, reared and then slaughtered these days, I find disgusting. The alternative though is to pay something like 5 times as much as we do today.

Jacqueline 'grown slower' means they have not been pumped full of growth promoting hormones, as so many farm animals are. I'm a vegetarian of about 35 years standing and seeing the conditions in which those poor birds are reared only serves to confirm my decision. Pat

I am not worried about bird flu per se. What does concern me is that it is becoming increasingly clear that Bernard Matthew's practices are far from ideal - or why else would all this have happened. I don't want to be eating produce from any company that is lax on controls and probably even more lax on welfare. BM you are off my shopping list - permananently. Angela

The virus has been found in another of the sheds. I don't actually eat chicken or turkey, unless I have seen them running around in the fresh air!!! As for the BM conglomerate declaring that their 'Bio precations' were up to scratch, if their employees can play baseball with live chickens, who's to say they can't walk from one shed to another, or touch one lot of dead chicken with dirty hands??? I hope this stops this awful factory farming and leads to the re-introduction of 'proper' chickens, with taste!! On the subject of factory farming, did you see the turkey's reaction when the shed doors were opened? Instead of rushing out like most animals would, they (apart from a handful) actually backed in!! I am glad they've been culled, they have been saved a short life of misery. maggie

Well if it brings the price down on chickens and turkeys I will be stacking the chest freezer up while the goings good. Its like the Egg scare and the Beef scare and I still carried on eating them. Sorry I wont be giving them up.

Nothing would surprise me about BM! Intensive poultry farming is a ghastly business - and why anyone would want to eat the tasteless, pale result is beyond me. Yes it might be cheap, but the 'real' cost is much, much greater.

I quote from the packaging on the Wye Valley Chicken purchased today:- 'Grown slower for more succulence. Fed on a unique vegetarian diet. Reared on family-run farms in the Wye ~Valley, Approved to the RSPCA welfare standards'. Now pardon my ignorance, but arent' animals reared? where does the 'grown slower' bit come in? And what meat would non-vegetarian chickens eat? pork? beef? lamb? The whole of the food chain has gone potty! Jacqui

My son in law worked for BM and suffice it to say I will never buy anither product from there. However, I dare say he isn't the only one...... The fact that this outbreak can be traced to turkeys imported from Hungary is proof that this passes turkey to turkey, or bird to bird and is not generally at large in the bird popiulation as a whole. I don't see any need to panic at the moment - and perhaps this will bring forth regulations which stop ANY animal being kept in such unnatural conditions, just so the British Public can have cheap food. OC

I never knowingly buy BM produce but I wonder how many supermarkets sell poultry under their own name that is BM? Apparently he has been bringing in poultry from Hungary and doing the last bit of the processing in England and calling it British produced. According to TV news. Ann Glos

buy from your local butcher.......any decent one will tell you where its been reared etc

I worked for a veterinary practice that had vets who worked at chicken farms, and you would not want to see the photo`s that I saw of such places. Also remember a few months ago a couple of workers at the Bernard Matthews place were done for cruelty to chickens. So, if you want to be kind to animals try buying those that are not reared in factories, and buy free range eggs. Kathlyn