More than 50kg of raw chicken bones, which were found dumped outside a dairy farm in the Kentstown area of Co. Meath on Sunday afternoon (April 9), have yet to be cleared by the local county council.
The chicken bones and meat, some of which are overflowing from plastic and cardboard packaging, “were definitely dumped” according to farm manager Shane Corbally, who told Agriland that it is a quiet area where only local traffic would pass by.
Upon discovery, he immediately covered the meat with pallets and plastic to prevent scavengers from accessing it and potentially spreading disease to nearby livestock, before making a report to the Gardaí.
In a statement to Agriland, An Garda Síochána said that it has referred the case to the local authority who will deal with the matter.
Corbally also posted about the dumping on his Twitter page yesterday morning (Monday, April 10), labelling it “disgusting”, before it was widely condemned by others in the industry.
Following his post, he was in touch with Meath County Council, which he contacted in an effort to organise the removal of the waste.
However, it has been more than 24 hours since he got in touch, and the chicken bones remain in situ.
Outlining his concerns around the spread of disease, Corbally said that just a hedge separates the road where the meat was dumped from grazing pasture, where livestock are kept.
“My biggest fears are the spread of botulism and salmonella, vermin or birds could picking at it and carry it across into the field, the water trough or anything. It could kill animals in the herd,” he said.
“We had an outbreak of salmonella before, we vaccinate for it now but it is not something we want to see,” he added.
He added that he has retrieved the batch number and other details from the cardboard box which some of the waste chicken bones were in, and said that it originated from a supplier in Co. Cork.
However, Corbally said he does not believe that this company is to blame, and outlined that there will be an investigation into who that company supplies within the locality.
“It is utterly disgusting. I didn’t want to find that, it’s not what you want after a bank holiday.
“I’ve better things to be doing that worrying about that,” he added.
Meath County Council was contacted to make a statement on the matter, however it did not provide any comment.