Chickens to Cut Down on Garbage

Belgian families accused of posing a health hazard with garbage cans overflowing with food waste are to be offered chickens to clean up their mess, a town official said on Friday.

Fifty families in the western town of Mouscron will receive two egg-laying hens each to help reduce the environmental threat from leftover food tossed away, offering "dual benefit," health official Christophe Deneve said.

Deneve said that families in the town of 52,000 people, near the French border city of Lille, would have to give written assurances that they would "not eat the chickens within two years" and authorize inspection visits.

(2010-02-26 AFP from NewsCore)