raid Friday foiled plans to sell thousands of rotten poultry and resulted in the arrest of 10 illegal workers who were involved in the process of establishing a poultry farm in violation of regulations and haphazardly slaughtered chickens, officials said. A committee for razing unlicensed poultry farms and slaughterhouses in cooperation with Jeddah Police, the Passports Department and Southern Jeddah Municipality, stormed the farm. The raid was approved by Prince Mish'al Bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah, according to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture branch in Makkah. The three-hour raid, which started at 10 P.M., resulted in the arrest of the illegal residents, including five unidentified workers; a vehicle for transporting chickens and a refrigerated truck. The vehicles were impounded and all machinery and tools in the slaughterhouse were destroyed, the report said. Plastic bags, stickers and live chickens were confiscated and handed over to Jeddah Municipality representative, said Muhammad Al-Shamrani, Director of the Ministry of Agriculture branch in Jeddah. The team also destroyed slaughtered chickens already in plastic bags and ready to be marketed to chilled poultry shops in Jeddah, he added. He called on citizens not to provide cover to illegal slaughterhouses that violate environmental and health regulations, and stressed that people should report violations to the Ministry of Agriculture branch or municipality. Consumers should verify expiry dates on chilled poultry and make sure it is provided by a licensed farm, he said, adding that names of the licensed farms can be had from the General Administration for Agriculture offices. __
