Volunteers Try to Save Chickens Dumped From Truck in Crash

One day after a trailer carrying thousands of chickens crashed into a steep ravine between Fillmore and Moorpark, Humane Society volunteers worked into the night Tuesday to rescue the surviving birds from their crushed wire cages.

About 4,000 chickens plunged into the ravine off Grimes Canyon Road about 6:30 p.m. Monday when a truck taking them from the Egg City ranch near Moorpark swerved to avoid an accident on the narrow, winding road and lost its rear trailer, said Larry Schuman, director of ranch operations for Egg City.

The 2-year-old chickens were being transported to a slaughterhouse at Turlock, near Modesto, that is owned by a company called Valley Fresh, Schuman said. Another 4,000 chickens on the rig’s front trailer continued on to Turlock after the accident, he said.

“Even though they are destined to be slaughtered, I would rather see it happen in a more humane way,” Schuman said as he surveyed the mounting piles of dead chickens.

Some of the cleanup workers--who included Egg City employees and a handful of Ventura County animal regulation officers--said that Egg City was far from humane, however, by not starting rescue efforts immediately after the crash Monday night.

“The chickens suffer like anything else, but when you have millions of them maybe a few thousand don’t seem that important,” said Humane Society Director Jolene Hoffman.

Schuman said the accident was not the company’s responsibility because the chickens had been sold to the Turlock processing plant and were being hauled there by a private trucking firm.

Asked why Egg City did not call Ventura County Department of Animal Regulation officers until Tuesday afternoon, Schuman said: “I called to make sure they were informed. And I’ve never had to deal with a situation like this.”

Neither had most of the volunteers, who used flashlights while separating live chickens from dead ones as they emptied the cages. Most of the surviving chickens were tasting freedom for the first time after spending their entire lives in cages for egg laying.

Humane Society officer Jeff Hoffman was unable to estimate the number of chickens that died in the crash because volunteers were still busy sorting them out. But large piles of chicken carcasses dotted the hillside.

Even more difficult than calculating the number of dead chickens was dealing with the survivors. Animal regulation veterinarian Craig Koenor was kept busy injecting a euthanizing drug into those that were too injured to be saved.

Other volunteers tried to calm the healthy birds, shooing them into groups to be rounded up and caged before the coyotes known to inhabit the canyon came out.

“If we have to, we’ll sit out here and wait so the coyotes won’t get them,” Jeff Hoffman said, adding that one coyote had already been spotted on the fringes of the canyon.

Schuman said all the chickens that could be saved will be hauled back to Egg City, where they will be kept until Valley Fresh arranges for them to be taken to its Turlock slaughterhouse.

California Highway Patrol Officer Jim Hardy said he did not have details of the accident. He described Grimes Canyon Road as a curvy, mountainous highway that is very narrow in some areas but is not considered particularly dangerous.