Trader arrested for selling dead chicken

Tirupur: A trader and a poultry farmowner were arrested for selling dead chicken at Palladam in the district recently.

Last week, police personnel at Veerapandi Pirivu checkpost red-handedly caught Ganesh, 34, of Parappalayam while he was carrying dead birds, which could fetch 140kg of meat. On intimation, food safety and drug administration (FSDA) authorities seized the dead chicken.

“In the past four months, we seized about 170kg of dead chicken in two instances excluding the last one. Catching the dead cocks was for the first time. When the police inquired with Ganesh, he confessed that all the 60 dead birds were procured for Rs 10 each from a poultry farm owned by Marimuthu of Sultanpettai near Palladam,” said K Tamil Selvan, designated officer of FSDA.

“Many people might be involved in such illegal selling of the dead chicken. It could cause health complications to the consumers from various Tasmac bars and roadside stalls. Apart from picking the dead chicken from the dump yards, the traders buy directly from the poultry farms. Arrests of the poultry owner and the trader might send warning message to the other violators,” he said.

FSDA has been planning to conduct an awareness programme to the poultry farmowners of Palladam, which has 4,207 hatcheries and 52 broiler farms and considered as one of the poultry hubs in the state.

Besides, collector K S Palanisamy has ordered the poultry farms not to sell dead chicken and to dispose them as prescribed by the animal husbandry department or otherwise face action including heavy fines.