Live Chickens Still Squawkin', Still Stinkin', on Brooklyn's Columbia Street

"I wouldn't go near the place with a barge-pole." That's part of the explicit review on YELP for Yeung Sun Live Poultry Market at 183 Columbia Street (near Degraw) in Brooklyn's Columbia Street Waterfront District.

Yeung Sun sells chickens, roosters, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs (eaten by Peruvians) for human consumption.

Here's another quote from YELP: "In one review of Alma, someone made reference to the garbage smell, well you can thank Yeung Sun Live Poultry Market for that. Dumpsters laden with poultry viscera and god knows what else are wheeled out on the curb, dripping with the most disgusting liquid and a stench no one can imagine ..."

In the photo above, taken Friday, the gate was closed but the door was open -- and lordy what a stink!

But honey, let's be fair. When the fancy folks moved in, they knew there were poultry markets in the area. Chicken feathers have always drifted around Columbia Street and Sackett Street, too. (Is Sing Wah Live Poultry still open on Sackett?)

According to the New York Times, in 2003 a Mr. Andrew Weiss began collecting signatures on a petition asking the city to remove the poultry markets, even though they were grandfathered in and can't be legally forced to move. (Guess that effort didn't pan out ...)

The 2003 Times article says, "Yeung Sun, encouraged by city tax credits, had recently agreed to relocate, most likely to Sunset Park within the next six months."

Well, here they are still, in 2008. Friday the place was filled with squawking, quacking creatures packed in wire crates, being hosed down by a mother and child.

And yes, it smelled.

Photos by MK Metz
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