Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub-Editor: Joana Mihajlovska, Agency:  Newsflash

This is the moment people rescue around 300,000 day-old chicks that were dumped on a street in Colombia after the country ground to a standstill in protest that saw roads blocked – stopping food deliveries to hatcheries.

The footage was filmed at a road in the city of Buga in the Colombian department of Valle del Cauca and was later shared on social media on 3rd May.

The video shows people gathered around countless baby chicks seen scurrying about under them and chirping as they look for food and water.

People are seen picking up the chicks and placing them inside boxes or buckets while others only look on at the bizarre scene as the video ends.

Local media said the released chickens were from the company ‘Pronavicola’ whose directors decided to release the birds as they lacked the food to feed them, and would have preferred to released on where they could take their chances than to have them starve to death.

The Colombian Federation of Poultry Farmers of Colombia President Gonzalo Moreno wrote a tweet that said: “Due to the blockades, they are taking out the day-old chicks from their incubators to die on the street.

“We have no food to give them. This is happening in Buga, right now.”

Moreno also posted a document revealing: “We have more than 60 million birds at risk of dying for the lack of food due to the roadblocks.”

The food shortage has reportedly been caused by nationwide protests happening in the country which has lead to major roads being blocked.

The protests happening across Colombia were locally dubbed ‘Paro Nacional en Colombia 2021’ (National Strike in Colombia 2021) and started on 28th April.

It was sparked after the national government lead by President Ivan Duque proposed a tax reform called ‘Ley de Solidaridad Sostenible’ (Law of Sustainable Solidarity) which hoped to fight some of the negative economic effects of COVID-19 in Colombia.

However, the law became controversial as among its proposals is to raise taxes on basic utilities such as water, electricity, gas, funeral services and electronic products such as computers affecting the country’s middle class who took to the streets.

BBC said the protests have left a death toll of 19 and over 800 injured. (https://bbc.in/3uli4aF)