Mega-farms and a mega-slaughterhouse: the destruction of Sisak-Moslavina County

The Animal Protection Network joins the campaign and supports the announced protest against mega-farms and slaughterhouses in Sisak-Moslavina County

In the area of Sisak-Moslavina County, a wave of industrial facilities for the breeding, slaughtering and processing of chickens is being planned – as many as about 18 interconnected mega-projects, which Ukrainian investors are submitting as separate interventions in order to avoid a cumulative assessment of the impacts on the environment, human health, infrastructure and the local economy.

According to the organizers’ statements and available data, the plan includes a mega-slaughterhouse with a biogas plant in Sisak, a series of mega-farms for fattening chickens, and a broiler farm with a capacity of as many as 120,000,000 eggs per year; farm capacity (12 projects) of 84 million (four times more than the current poultry farming in the whole of Croatia); slaughterhouses (3) with a capacity of 270 million chickens per year; as well as a hatchery and an animal feed factory.

The projects were reported in a technically incomplete and inconsistent manner, without clear solutions for key risks such as the disposal of manure and dead chickens, but with an obvious avoidance of legal thresholds in order to bypass stricter regulation. Even if all regulations could be met, the environment simply cannot withstand such a megalomaniac plan, and destruction and irreparable permanent damage will follow.

This is not an “investment” that arrives quietly and without consequences. This is a model which, if it goes through, will turn an entire region into a zone of industrial pollution – and what is being imposed on Sisak-Moslavina County today can be repeated anywhere in Croatia tomorrow.

Impact on ecology: water, soil, air – and the waste that stays here

It should be clarified immediately that intensive poultry farming, like the one planned in Sisak-Moslavina County, is not “just another farm”. It is an industry that produces enormous quantities of manure, wastewater, dust and unpleasant odors, alongside emissions of harmful gases – and it permanently burdens soil, air and water, while at the same time causing the loss of forest and agricultural land.

In some local communities, the infrastructure already cannot cope even with existing burdens. For example, only part of the settlements in the Municipality of Lekenik has a water supply and sewage system, and no settlement has a wastewater treatment facility, while the projects would simultaneously generate large quantities of manure, wastewater, and hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

The scale of resource consumption is terrifying and relentless. For the mega-slaughterhouse in Sisak, a slaughter capacity of around 82 million chickens per year is stated, with an estimate that the facility would “drink” about four million liters of water per day.

It is additionally stated that, in return, wastewater would be discharged into the environment “loaded with nitrogen, phosphorus, antibiotics and bacteria”.

Using the example of the farm in Velika Ludina, figures are given that show how the “normal operation” of such facilities means constant production of waste and emissions: annual production of 67,644 tons of chicken meat, with more than 490,000 m³ of drinking water, 26,000 m³ of wastewater, about 8 million m³ of natural gas, emissions of over 15,800 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year, and about 57,500 tons of manure – and that is for one complex.

When everything is added up at the county level, the document states that more than 206 million chickens per year would be “processed” at these sites, with an estimate that this can generate “more than one million tons of CO₂”, comparable to the annual CO₂ emissions of “more than 200,000 cars”.

Impact on human health: facilities embedded in settlements, near sources of drinking water

One of the key facts is that the facilities are planned “within the cities and settlements themselves, right next to schools, health centers, protected natural assets and sources of drinking water”.

This is not an abstract fear, but a spatial conflict from the outset: the facilities are described as being located “in the fabric of settlements”, near residential zones and public institutions.

For Sisak, it is explicitly stated that everything would take place “less than a kilometer” from the first houses, kindergartens, schools, nursing homes and health institutions, as well as near the Sava and Kupa rivers – while it is emphasized that the Kupa is also a source of drinking water.

The example should also be mentioned of a project which, according to the Environmental Impact Study, is “only 900 meters from the nearest settlement”, near agricultural areas and water protection zones.

What does that mean in practice? The facilities would produce “significant quantities of ammonia, methane and hydrogen sulfide” which cause unpleasant odors and irritate the respiratory and nervous system.

Intensive use of antibiotics is also mentioned, as well as “almost four tons of chemicals” to reduce high mortality in flocks, with the risk of spreading zoonoses such as salmonella, campylobacteriosis and avian influenza.

An additional layer of the problem is traffic and logistics: more frequent passage of heavy trucks, noise, dust and emissions – which is particularly highlighted through the expectation of a cumulative increase in traffic and noise on local roads that “are not intended for heavy truck traffic”.

Consequences for chickens: millions of lives reduced to “capacity”

In this whole story, what is most lost is what the industry systematically erases from language: behind “capacity” and “production” are living beings. We are talking about breathtaking proportions: according to a statement by the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture, the capacity of the planned farms alone of 84 million would be as much as four times greater than current poultry farming in the whole of Croatia. The overall plan also includes slaughterhouses with a capacity of 270 million chickens per year, a hatchery and animal feed factories.

Industrial broiler fattening typically means extremely intensive farming: enormous densities in halls, dust and ammonia, chronic stress, health problems and high mortality. The document even states “annual chicken mortality higher than 1,300 tons” (in the context of one farm), which shows that the loss of life is built into the plan as an expected “production item”.

More broadly, scientific reviews describe that selecting broilers for very rapid growth carries serious consequences for their welfare – from leg problems and reduced mobility to metabolic disorders such as ascites and sudden death. This is “efficiency” paid for with pain, restricted movement and a life that lasts only a few weeks.

The egg industry – hens, and male chicks as a “by-product”

This plan also mentions a farm with a capacity of 120 million eggs per year.

The egg industry has its own particular brutality: hens are treated as machines for production, and as soon as productivity drops, their lives become worthless and they are killed.

The darkest part of the system is what happens right at the beginning: male chicks from laying-hen lines, because they do not lay eggs and are economically “unprofitable”, are commonly killed immediately after hatching, in the sense that they are ground up alive or thrown into bags to suffocate. In Europe, this practice is being discussed ever more openly, and some countries have banned it – for example, it is stated that France and Germany banned the killing of male day-old chicks from 2022, amid pressure for the practice to be abandoned more widely across the EU. Globally, sources cite figures of several billion male chicks killed per year in the egg industry.

In other words: when people say “an egg factory”, it is not only a question of conditions for hens, but an entire system in which one part of life is deliberately produced only to be discarded immediately.

Ukraine as a warning: Vinnytsia and “what awaits us”

The experience of Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region should also be highlighted, where the population has been protesting for years because of the consequences of the massive poultry industry of the same investor, with claims of depleted resources, a devastated environment and damaged health.

Mention is made of dried-up wells, an unbearable stench of ammonia, noise and vibrations from heavy trucks, damage to houses and roads, and open manure dumps. Particularly alarming is the claim that the remaining water in Vinnytsia had nitrates “up to 190 mg/L”, multiple times above permitted limits, which points to severe water contamination and a serious risk to the environment and biodiversity.

The following is clear: if the same model has already proven destructive elsewhere, why would we now allow it to relocate here – onto permeable soil, along the Sava and Kupa rivers, near sanitary protection zones and sources of drinking water?

How citizens’ voices are ignored: public consultations as a formality, “fragmentation” and shifting responsibility

Citizens warn that their objections are systematically ignored, and that public consultations are reduced to a formality. Although they have clearly expressed their opposition through protests and petitions, their will is disregarded in favor of the interests of foreign investors.

Despite all this, institutions remain silent, shift responsibility to other bodies, or conduct the procedure as if nothing is happening.

A key problem is also the way the projects have been submitted: they have been split into dozens of procedures so that each individual one remains below thresholds that would require a stricter and unified assessment. This procedure is known as “fragmentation” and is, in essence, a deliberate manipulation to avoid assessing cumulative damage.

In addition, public consultations are generally poorly advertised and technically restricted, and in some places comments must even be sent exclusively by post – which is contrary to the spirit of the Aarhus Convention and thus excludes the wider public from participation.

Consequences for the Croatian economy: profit leaves, damage stays

Although they hide behind the word investment, it is clear that this is an ecological, health and social catastrophe in the making. From an economic perspective, such a mega-project means shutting down about 250 farms. Grain will be imported, chickens exported. What will remain in Croatia is pollution, disease and an irreversibly destroyed environment. Why would Croatia become Europe’s dumping ground for the private interests of two foreign investors? In addition, the annual pollution figures will become ever more frightening year after year.

When “jobs” are promised, it should be remembered that the workforce will mostly consist of foreign nationals, meaning that residents of those settlements will not truly benefit from it – all that will remain for them is the stench, the destruction of natural assets, risks to health, and reduced welfare and quality of life for them and their children.

Come to the protest: 21 February in Zagreb

This is the moment for action, because afterwards it will be too late!

The associations Friends of Animals and Green Action, together with the civic initiatives Sisak residents don’t want to be “Dump residents” and Sunja residents don’t want to be “fooled”, with the support of other associations and initiatives, are calling for a large protest against the “chicken eco-bomb” on Saturday, 21 February at 10 a.m., at King Tomislav Square in Zagreb.

If you care about the environment, human health and animal welfare – see you on 21 February!