Ewww! Filthy house supplying chicken in QC closed–finally

A half-naked man dressing chickens inside a rundown house, surrounded by pools of blood, piles of feathers and mounds of manure.

This sight greeted inspectors from the Quezon City veterinary services office early Tuesday morning, prompting them to order the permanent closure of a makeshift poultry supply facility on Montreal Street in Cubao for poor sanitation and lack of a business permit.

The facility, owned by Jane Parayawan, “has been operating for several years and has been warned several times but the owner refused to comply with the sanitary and business requirements,” city veterinarian Dr. Ana Marie Cabel said.

Nearby flea markets in the Cubao area got their supply of poultry from the facility, she said.

Cabel said she was appalled by the unsanitary conditions at the place when she and her team conducted a surprise inspection around 3 a.m. “There was only one worker, who was half-naked, dressing the slaughtered chickens. He repeatedly dunked the chickens in one drum of boiling water to get rid of the remaining feathers and dirt. It was really dirty.”

She also noted that the toilet was located too close to the working area.

The city veterinarian recalled that apart from having no permit to operate, the owner had been previously warned four times to secure a business permit and comply with city regulations for chicken dressing facilities. Parayawan tried to make improvements on the house by installing a roof, but it was still very unsanitary, she said.

Under the city’s sanitation code, a repeat offender faces a maximum fine of only P5,000 and the permanent closure of the business.

The veterinary office is monitoring around 60 to 70 chicken dressing facilities in the city as demand for poultry is expected to rise in the coming holiday season.

According to Cabel, many owners of such facilities have applied for permits to operate only as retailers or wholesalers from the city’s market development and administration department, thinking they would not be subject to sanitation checks.