Colorado Bill Would Phase Out Heatstroke as a Poultry Depopulation Method

Washington, DC—The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) welcomes yesterday’s introduction of the Modernizing Depopulation Act in the Colorado General Assembly. The bill would establish Colorado as the first state to phase out the use of ventilation shut down (VSD) and VSD plus heat (VSD+) as methods of depopulating (mass killing) flocks of chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other birds for disease control.

Analogous to locking a dog in a hot car, VSD and VSD+ involve trapping thousands of animals inside a barn, closing off the airflow, and raising the temperature (the “plus heat” refers to the addition of heaters, humidity, or steam) as high as 130 degrees Fahrenheit until the animals die from hyperthermia or heatstroke—a process that can take several hours. These methods are not only cruel but also inefficient and often ineffective: Most poultry flocks depopulated with VSD+ have survivors who languish for hours or days before they are eventually found and killed by another method.