Alliston resident Jamie Pendleton was on her normal morning commute to work along 3rd Concession Road, in Adjala-Tosorontio Township, when she noticed something out of the ordinary.
According to Pendleton, it was an overwhelming stench that hit her first. “The smell hits you right away and you can’t do anything but drive right through it,” she said.
It was then that Pendleton noticed what appeared to be piles of mulch strewn along the roadway. However, when she got closer, she realized that wasn’t the case. “It isn’t until you’re right on it, that you see feathers, intestines and carcasses,” she said.
What Pendleton was seeing, were hundreds of dead chickens laying in heaps on the road.
The chicken carcasses were strewn across the road for a couple hundred metres, and in some places were in piles more than a foot deep, she said.
Township staff, with help from members from the Roads Department of the Ministry of Transportation, worked most of the morning to clean the dead chickens from the road.
According to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Transportation, they received a call for cleanup from the OPP and dispatched their maintenance contractor to clean the 50-metre section of Highway 89 covered in chickens.
The ministry picked up the carcasses on Highway 89, while the Township cleaned the majority of birds from 3rd Concession Road, and transported the carcasses to the Simcoe County landfill.
By the time Pendleton made her late-afternoon commute home, most of the cleanup was done but the roads were still covered in marks where the carcasses had been, and she said the stench remained.
“I instantly went right to the car wash because there were chunks of meat, guts and carcasses were stuck under my SUV and in my wheel wells,” she said.
Pendleton says she has lived in Alliston for 28 years and has never seen anything like it. Like most residents, she would like to know where the birds came from.
According to the Nottawasaga OPP, it is still unclear at this time where the chickens came from, however, they do believe the chickens were dead before they were dumped alongside the road.
Police are now investigating the incident, and are asking anyone with information to please contact the Nottawasaga OPP detachment at 705-434-1939. Information can also be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).