DutchNews, August 2, 2017
Pigs on a factory farm. Photo: Depositphotos.com |
Rodents gnawing through electricity cables
are the likely reason for most unexplained factory farm fires, the Telegraaf
reported on Wednesday.
According to pest control advice centre KAD in
Wageningen, factory farm owners must do more to keep ‘pyro mice’and rats away
from where the animals are kept.
Insurers should be more critical when
considering insurance claims and owners who do not have a continuous contract
to combat rodents or a pest control certificate to state they can do it
themselves should get nothing in case of a fire caused by rodents, the paper
writes.
‘The role of rodents in infernos such as this is being underestimated.
We think more than half of unexplained farm fires are down to insufficiently
insulated cabling which has been gnawed at by mice or rats,’ KAD biologist
Albert Weijman told the paper.
The call for more stringent rules for the prevention of factory farm fires comes in
the wake of a devastating fire in Erichem in which 20,000 pigs died. Its cause
has not been established yet.
According to Joop de Jonge of the PvdD, fire
safety at factory farms leaves much to be desired. ‘None of the factory farms
has compartments, sprinklers or fire detectors, he told the Gelderlander.
Insurance association Verbond van Verzekeraars told the Telegraaf that
contracts with farmers are already stringent when it comes to the fire safety
of animal holding areas.
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