Haris Rahman Kavungal, an ornamental poultry farmer at Parappanangadi, stayed away from his farm on Saturday as the rapid response teams of the Animal Husbandry Department killed 105 ornamental pet birds of his one by one.
Among them were turkeys, costly doves and pigeons, swans and several exotic fowls and ducks Mr. Rahman had procured from different places.
Painful
A businessman in the Gulf, Mr. Rahman said it would be too painful for him to see his pets being culled.
Even the rapid response team members did not hide their anguish as Mr. Rahman let them do their job without a single word of protest.
“It is so anguishing for me, but it is the government protocol for avian flu management,” he said.
Mr. Rahman said it was not the cost of the exotic birds that made him sad, but it was the emotional attachment that he had.
“It was like parting with your children… so painful,” he said.
Like Mr. Rahman, a few other small-time farmers too expressed their anguish at the culling. However, the officials succeeded in convincing them of the importance of culling in the management of the deadly avian flu.
Culling to continue
The culling will continue on Monday. After sanitising the entire one kilometre area from Palathingal, where the bird flu was detected two days ago, the authorities will check further for birds in the region. If detected, they will be caught and killed.
The district administration said that no compensation would be given to those birds culled in the secondary stage.
It goaded the people to come forward to help the rapid response teams cull the birds.
