New complaint against Avícola Ballester: the largest farm in the Balearic Islands is also full of chicken corpses

PalmaDecomposing chicken carcasses, injured animals, and birds trapped in manure. This is what the recordings show that support the second complaint in one week against an Avícola Ballester farm. The animal rights organizations ARDE and Satya Animal are once again pointing out one of the company's facilities, this time the one in Es Caparó, in Manacor, where the images recorded in July document scenes that a veterinary report considers compatible with a serious deterioration of animal welfare.

The complaint is based, among other elements, on a veterinary report signed by Alba Nieto Palau on September 1st. The analysis describes images compatible with a serious and sustained deterioration of animal welfare, persistent mortality, and significant deficiencies in cleaning and handling.

Injured, trapped, and critically ill hens

Among the scenes described in the report are hens with extensive feather loss and areas of exposed skin, injuries to the head and body, and wounds with the presence of blood. A dead hen is also observed with its head and neck trapped between the bars of a facility structure, as well as live specimens partially trapped in compacted manure.

The report also describes birds inside the manure pit that apparently do not have access to food or water, and animals lying down and immobile or with signs consistent with a very serious state. Regarding mortality, the recordings show carcasses scattered throughout different parts of the farm and in various stages of decomposition. Some appear piled up on the ground, without any closed conservation system being observed.

The veterinarian also points out the accumulation of manure, feathers, organic matter, and liquids, as well as dirty and deteriorated structures. The images also show eggs on the ground, in contact with excrement and organic remains and near dead hens. The report also points to poor lighting and a possible situation of overcrowding in one of the areas with hens.

Based on these observations, the complaint raises possible breaches of animal welfare, hygiene, and animal by-product management regulations.

A farm with a capacity for more than 183,000 hens

According to the documentation provided by the entities, the Es Caparó farm is the largest in the Balearic Islands in terms of livestock capacity, with an authorized maximum of 183,448 hens distributed across three sheds. Two operate with a cage system and a third with a floor-rearing system with aviaries. The operation also has facilities for grading and packing eggs, a loading area, and an 862-square-meter manure platform.

The data provided place the annual production at about 56.6 million eggs, with a water consumption of 57,330 liters per day and a generation of 7,337 tons of manure per year. The management of carcasses foreseen in the integrated environmental authorization contemplates, according to this documentation, a closed deposit with quicklime. The images described in the veterinary report, on the other hand, show carcasses in different parts of the facilities, a circumstance that the complaint asks to be investigated.

A new complaint against the same company

The case arrives the day after ARDE and Satya Animal made public another complaint related to a poultry farm of the same company.. In that case, the entities alerted about the conditions observed in another farm and, subsequently, Avícola Ballester announced that it was considering taking legal action against the animal rights organizations.

The new complaint thus broadens the focus on the facilities linked to the business group, which includes Avícola Ballester SA and Avícola Son Perot SA. The documentation provided by the entities also includes a history of administrative controversies related to other projects and facilities of the group, including sanctions and procedures linked to environmental authorization and manure management. These precedents correspond to different files and do not demonstrate, by themselves, any infringement at the Manacor farm.

At Es Caparó, complaints regarding the operation's functioning are not limited to the welfare of the hens. According to the information gathered in the dossier, local residents have been warning for years about foul odors and fly infestations associated with the farm and the manure accumulation areas. There are also residents who have expressed concern about the presence of nitrates in the wells and the quality of the water, which they claim is not suitable for drinking or cooking. These neighborhood complaints constitute a different front from the one addressed by the veterinary report on the animals' conditions.

ARDE and Satya Animal have forwarded the complaint to the Balearic Islands Prosecutor's Office and the Department of Agriculture, and have made the original recordings available to the media. Now, the verification of the facts will depend on the actions that the competent authorities may carry out, including an on-site inspection of the facilities and a review of the mortality, handling, and carcass management records.