Inquiry into chicken carcass find

The carcasses were found at an illegal dump

Northern Ireland's largest chicken company has launched an inquiry after scores of chicken carcasses were found at an illegal dump in County Tyrone.

Locals reported a bad smell and said the birds had been dumped over a bridge in a remote area before Christmas.

A BBC Newsline investigation found paperwork nearby from a Moy Park poultry farm.

When contacted by the BBC, Moy Park said it was "shocked and appalled" that anyone would dump birds in this way.

The company said it had a "strict protocol" for its farmers to dispose of old breeding stock and that senior managers were "now investigating the incident".

A company spokesman said if the paperwork and the dumped carcasses are connected, then the farmer would have his contract terminated.

Reporting from the dump site, near Sixmilecross, the BBC's rural correspondent Martin Cassidy said the company would arrange a clean-up.

"The winter landscape may look beautiful and pristine but this remote road in County Tyrone hides the filthy side of rural Northern Ireland," he said.

"And the unacceptable face of local farming.

"On top of the old tyres and household waste, are chicken carcasses - dozens of them strewn across the site."

Senior managers from Moy Park have been to see the dump for themselves.

The company says regardless of who dumped the birds, for the sake of local farming and the environment it would be arranging a clean-up operation to remove the chicken carcasses.