Chicken spills upsetting rural residents

Rural Johnson County residents are fed up with finding chicken intestines covering the road in front of their home.

“Nobody should have to put up with this,” said Tom Gingerich, a resident along 250th Street near Kalona.

Gingerich said his son first spotted the chicken pieces on his way to work Tuesday night.

“[He] called and said there are chicken intestines all over the road by Highway 1,” Gingerich said.

This is not the first time chicken drippings have been located along that stretch of gravel road, according to Gingerich. He said it happened a few weeks ago, when Iowa Poultry first opened its doors.

“[I] saw from the rear of the truck, basically a waterfall of blood was just cascading out of the rear end of this semi,” Gingerich said, adding that blood droppings from the truck were spotted all up and down 250th Street.

For more photos, click on these links (WARNING: Images may be disturbing to some viewers) -- Chicken Waste 2 | Chicken Waste 3 | Chicken Waste 4

Gingerich is tired of driving through discarded pieces of chicken to get to his home. He believes Iowa Poultry fills its semis too full with the chicken waste.

“It sloshes out over the trailer, and that's how this stuff gets all over the road,” he said.

Gingerich wants Iowa Poultry to promise him, and others living along that road, that the company will fix the problem.

Richard Michel, a representative for Iowa Poultry, said Wednesday morning that this issue has been “blown out of proportion.” Michel admitted the truck that spilled the chicken Tuesday night was “a little too full,” but that this is the first time something like this has happened.

He said the company will increase the frequency of the trucks used to transport the discarded chicken pieces so that a spill “hopefully won't happen again.”