To: National Fire Protection Association, Linda Fuller, Recording Secretary for Standards Council

Protect Farmed Animals from Preventable Fires

Being burned alive is a terrible way to die. Yet millions of chickens, turkeys and other animals burn to death each year in buildings they can't escape from. For example, in January 300, 000 hens, trapped in a building in La Grange, Wisconsin, died horribly in a massive fire.

Nearly 7,000 farmed animal housing fires occur each year in the U.S. Walled up in their prisons, the animals shriek, bang against the bars of their cages, panic and pile on one another in their pain and terror.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) - "The Authority on Fire, Electrical & Building Safety" - is considering an amendment that would require all newly constructed animal housing facilities to be equipped with sprinklers and smoke control systems. This amendment is opposed by the agribusiness lobby. They'd rather let their animals burn to death than waste money on mercy.

PLEASE HELP!

The NFPA is inviting written public comment. They need to hear from people who care. Please urge the NFPA to amend their 150 Standard for Fire & Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities to require sprinklers and smoke control systems in all newly constructed animal housing facilities holding "Category B" animals. No animal should ever be forced to die helplessly in a preventable fire.

Submission Deadlines: The closing date for paper submittals is April 11, 2014 and the closing date for online submittals is May 16, 2014.

Address paper submittals to:

Linda Fuller, Recording Secretary for Standards Council
National Fire Protection Association
1 Batterymarch Park
Quincy, MA 02169

Tel: 617-770-3000 Fax: 617-770-0700

To submit your comment online, go to
www.nfpa.org/150next

Why is this important?

I am an animal welfare activist who cannot bear what industrial agriculture has become. We no longer care for animals as if they are living, breathing beings with feelings, able to experience pain and terror just like humans. Animals have become units, and we have become monsters. I want to help prevent the burning alive of thousands of animals every year because they are confined and unable to save themselves. The requirement for sprinklers and smoke control is a small step toward that end. A small step that big business opposes, because it would cost them dollars, and it is all about dollars to them.