Funeral’ for chickens in Japan

TOKYO: Dressed in a black suit and tie, a man asked the roomful of mourners to bow their heads. For a minute, they stood and faced the brightly lit altar in silence. On a stage, piled in a pyramid and surrounded by white daisies and lilies sat the dead: dozens of eggs in clear plastic cartons. Arranged by the Agriculture Ministry and the poultry industry, a solemn ceremony that took place on April 26 at a Tokyo hotel honoured hundreds of thousands of chickens slaughtered since a deadly bird flu was discovered here in January.