Slaughterhouse Plan Sparks Squawks

“Which of these chickens would you like us to slaughter?”

Meat-eaters may have a chance to answer that question at a live poultry market on Kimberly Avenue, unless at least one Hill neighbor has a say in the matter.

In a city generally removed from the animal farms that feed many of its residents, an initial debate over the proposal has taken stock of how chickens currently wind up on New Haveners’ plates — and asked whether neighbors should make room for a different pathway.

Milford resident Mirza Hafiz came up with the idea for the poultry market, envisioning coops of live chickens that customers can personally select to be killed, processed, and sold onsite.

Similar businesses exist in nearby Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Bloomfield, at least two of which are certified Halal. Hafiz is looking to open one up in the former home of Tip Top market at 74 Kimberly Ave., a triangular building on the acutely-angled corner where Kimberly meets Greenwich in the Hill.

Chickens would be delivered three times per week from farms in Pennsylvania and New York and herded into the business by way of a service entrance. The animals would be kept in cages in a room behind the butcher area, according to a written proposal sent to city staff.

Hafiz’s lawyer, Ben Trachten, argued the business would serve immigrant and religious communities accustomed to picking out live chickens for consumption, especially some Muslim and South American cultures.

The market would also serve as an alternative to ​“giant agro” chicken meat companies like Purdue, he said.

Hafiz is under contract to buy the building, provided that the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) grants a special exception allowing a poultry market there, according to Trachten. The building is in a BA (business) zone.

A public hearing about whether to grant that special exception was slated for July 9. Trachten said he and his client requested that the board postpone the hearing until August, partly in order to prepare more fully for anticipated opposition from neighbors.

Hill resident Leslie Radcliffe, who serves as chair of the City Plan Commission, voiced opposition to the poultry market proposal in the days leading up to the public hearing — including in a five-page, single-spaced letter to the BZA.

One of Radcliffe’s key concerns: The potential for odor coming from the facility.

“There is nothing in this world that smells worse than chicken when it starts to decompose,” she said in an interview. ​“This is just from experience cooking chicken myself.”

She noted in her letter that any potential smells would negatively impact the playground across the street, nearby businesses, and residents in the vicinity. She added that daily deliveries and pickups could put a strain on already-scarce parking in the neighborhood, and that the establishment could attract rodents.

Radcliffe also questioned whether the business would comply with the array of public health requirements of a slaughterhouse, quoting from articles about the potential for bacterial contamination of the meat as well as nitrogen and phosphorus pollution through waste disposal.

In an email to city staff alluding to Radcliffe’s letter, Trachten pointed out that local, state, and federal agencies would all regulate the business, including the state Department of Public Health, which would need to issue approvals as well.

Trachten argued that odors would be ​“similar to a restaurant or less intense,” mitigated by six to eight fanned roof vents. He said that Hafiz plans to store all waste products indoors and contract a trash company to pick up refuse on a daily basis, as well as a pest management company.

Responding to this list of solutions, Radcliffe said she’s concerned about the enforcement of these promised measures to mitigate trash, smell, and infestation concerns. ​“The city’s not the greatest at following up on complaints, because of the shortage of manpower,” she said.

“There’s a place for everything,” she said, ​“and a residential area, in my perspective, is not the place” for a slaughterhouse.

Trachten, meanwhile, noted, ​“You could do a smoke shop as of right” without any approvals required, in that location. A poultry market and slaughterhouse, he argued, would be preferable.

Which Meat Source Is More "Humane"?

Beyond the pragmatic concerns about odors and public health, Radcliffe expressed concern about the wellbeing of the chickens in a live poultry setting.

“Now, I love chicken. I had chicken last night and I’m gonna have chicken today. God bless the chicken,” Radcliffe said. But the thought of live chickens living for up to three days just steps away from the place where they’d soon be killed — close enough to hear the slaughter of their fellow chickens — makes her uneasy.

The repeated stress of hearing other chickens getting slaughtered may affect the quality of the meat, she noted.

“I would not want to be a chicken in a room where there are other chickens” getting slaughtered, she said. ​“Let’s be as humane as possible.”

In many large factory farms, even ones deemed ​“humane” and ​“cage free,” chickens are often packed tightly with scarce room to move. Those farms are increasingly distant from the slaughterhouses where the chickens are killed en masse, necessitating a longer transportation route that is itself deadly for many animals in transport. And the industry is notorious for brutal labor conditions; investigations within the last decade have uncovered widespread child labor, long-term injuries, and even a need to wear diapers due to a lack of bathroom breaks at some of the country’s largest poultry factories.

Trachten framed Hafiz’s proposed poultry market as a more ethical option than most chicken meat available at supermarkets like Stop and Shop.

“They’ll be sourcing from farms in New York and Pennsylvania. We have a degree of comfort with the supply chain,” he said.

“Maybe people don’t want to know how their food is processed,” he said, but ​“there’s a significant portion of the community, whether it’s for religious or cultural or other reasons, that is very interested in this.”

“I would love the opportunity to go and pick out a chicken that I cook,” he said.

Radcliffe disagreed.

However the chickens that make it to her plate are raised and then killed, ​“I don’t want to see that. I don’t wanna know that,” she said. ​“I just want to get my meat in a package.”