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Jakarta starts poultry hunt as ban takes effect
JAKARTA - Officials carrying out door-to-door checks in Jakarta to enforce a ban on backyard poultry were overwhelmed by the number of birds they found, authorities have said. A woman chops chicken at her stall inside a traditional market in Jakarta, January 2006. Officials carrying out door-to-door checks in Jakarta to enforce a ban on backyard poultry were overwhelmed by the number of birds they found, authorities have said. |
The ban on raising poultry in the Indonesian capital was introduced as part of efforts to tackle bird flu which has killed six people so far this year in the nation.
Indonesia has suffered the highest human death toll from bird flu with 63 fatalities since June 2005. Five of the six deaths this year were in Jakarta and surrounding areas.
Health and other municipal officials went door to door amid torrential rain after Jakarta governor Sutiyoso decreed that no birds other than licenced pets would be allowed in residential areas of the city from February 1.
Animal husbandry officials said more than 100,000 birds had been slaughtered so far, but it is estimated there could be more than one million birds still in Jakarta.
Sutiyoso admitted huge numbers of birds were found despite the ban coming into effect after residents were given two weeks' notice to kill or eat their birds.
"The huge numbers of poultry in Jakarta are overwhelming officers," he said without giving numbers.
He did not give a timetable for when the capital could be declared free of backyard poultry. "We can be flexible," he said.
Planning Minister Paskah Suzetta said Wednesday that Indonesia may declare bird flu a national disaster, which would free up funds and permit nationwide coordination to fight the disease.
Under the decree, from February 1, all backyard poultry will be seized and killed without compensation.
Some were reluctant to obey the ban, however.
In East Jakarta, Kadis said she was disappointed she had to get rid of her young free-range chickens.
"Mam, we will give you seven days to either sell, consume or move your chickens," district head Ahmad Nizar told her in a broadcast on ElShinta radio.
"My chickens are too young to sell or eat," she replied.
Also in East Jakarta, 15-year-old Ismail told AFP he had sold almost all his chickens and other birds.
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Source: TerraNet Plus
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