A chicken farm in Auckland where 190,000 birds died did not proactively tell the authorities that anything had happened, and only did after they were dobbed in, animal welfare campaigners claim.
The deaths happened over the weekend and the Ministry for Primary Industries is now investigating the farm, which supplies Tegel, to see if there were any breaches of animal welfare legislation.
Animal welfare campaigners say the Ministry must throw the book at them, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of animals should not go unpunished, even if it was a mistake.
RNZ's Jordan Bond reports.
