As Damage Assessment Begins From Dorian, Concerns Remain For Inland Farms, Livestock

As Hurricane Dorian moves away from North Carolina's coast, emergency officials will begin to assess the damage to buildings and property. There may also be concerns further inland, as flooding could take a toll on farm animals.  

North Carolina is the nation's second-largest pork producing state and third-largest poultry producer. Most of its estimated 9 million pigs, 830 million chickens, and 32 million turkeys are caged and confined inside factory farms located in the coastal floodplains.

With forecasters predicting storm surges from Dorian of up to eight feet, the stakes for livestock are high. Some farmers in this region are still rebuilding from the damage caused by Florence last year, where flood-damaged hog and chicken farms led to the deaths of more than 3 million chickens and 5,500 pigs. 

Gene Baur is the president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal sanctuary and advocacy organization. He says the risk to the surrounding environment is also high.

“When you have animals crowded by the thousands in warehouses, they generate enormous quantities of waste, and the land cannot absorb it,” says Baur. “So, what is happening now is it's being stored in these open cesspools. But when hurricanes and flooding come, these cesspits overflow.” 

The pork industry alone generates roughly 10 billion gallons of manure annually in North Carolina. Last year, Hurricane Florence caused more than 100 hog lagoons to either release pig waste into the environment, or to be at imminent risk of doing so.