Intruder turns off ventilation fans killing 10,000 chickens at Nova Scotia farm: RCMP

Jul 31, 2026 | 1:13 PM

LUNENBURG – The recent deaths of 10,000 chickens at a Nova Scotia farm were the result of a deliberate bid to harm the birds, police say.

RCMP Cpl. Mandy Edwards says investigators have confirmed someone broke into the poultry barn near Lunenburg last Friday night and switched off ventilation fans on the first floor of the building

Without proper air circulation, temperatures on that floor started to rise.

Edwards said that by Saturday morning, the temperature on the first floor of the two-storey barn in Pine Grove reached 37 C, making it impossible for the chickens to survive. The birds on the second floor were unaffected.

“When (workers) were approaching the barn about 12 hours later, they knew that something was wrong because they could smell … the odour of 10,000 chicken carcasses decaying,” Edwards said in an interview Friday.

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Investigators later determined nothing had been stolen from the building and nothing was damaged,

“The motive behind why this would be done would be something we would like to determine,” Edwards said in an interview. “But it appears to be a deliberate attempt to harm the chickens by turning off the ventilation fans.”

Police are asking anyone with information about what happened to come forward.

by Pattison Media

Intruder turns off ventilation fans killing 10,000 chickens at Nova Scotia farm: RCMP

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