Baby chicks for sale at a Tractor Supply Company store, 2021.

Bird Flu and Tractor Supply:
Urge “No Baby Chicks or Ducklings!”

“Mass cullings have been implemented as a highly contagious form of avian flu has swept across the eastern half of the United States in recent weeks, killing both farmed poultry and wild birds.”
– HealthDay News

Poultry factory farms and transport methods, added to traditional farming practices, live bird markets, cockfighting, and the wild-caught bird trade, have created the conditions responsible for the spread of avian influenza (bird flu) viruses capable of infecting birds and humans. Backyard-poultry keepers and their birds are not immune to this contagion. See How Infected Backyard Poultry Could Spread Bird Flu to People.

Salmonella infection of backyard birds, children, and adults is also a risk. More and more children have egg allergies and complications of seasonal flu. The risk of infection, says Dr. Pascal James Imperato of the State University of New York’s Health Sciences University, is “especially high for young children who come into contact with baby chicks and ducklings.”

WHAT CAN I DO?

Urge Tractor Supply corporate offices to stop selling these birds. Typically shipped by airmail, the newborns come to the stores in a fragile state of food and water deprivation and extreme stress. Their condition weakens their immune systems, making them particularly vulnerable to avian influenza and Salmonella infections. At the store, they receive little or no care, and often don’t have food or water, or else the food and water bowls are full of filth, as has been reported by customers and employees. For a full account in 2021, see UPC's Poultry Press.

CONTACT

• Hal Lawton, CEO
  Tractor Supply Company
  5401 Virginia Way
  Brentwood, TN 37027
  Phone: 615-440-4600 extension 4601
  Website: www.tractorsupply.com
• Customer Solutions:
  1-877-718-6750
  [email protected]

Stacked display trays at a Tractor Supply Company store, 2021.

Thank You for Taking Action!
– United Poultry Concerns