A Chicago-based animal-rights group recently released undercover video showing chickens living in cages with rotting corpses.The six-week investigation by the organization Mercy For Animals, which I wrote about in my previous post, was undertaken at a farm in Turner, Maine, operated by Maine Contract Farming LLC, New England's largest egg supplier.
The facility also provides eggs to Eggland's Best, which I'm familiar with because it sponsors "Wheel of Fortune" (I've e-mailed the producers) and which prides itself on having healthier eggs than its competition. I'm no expert, but I'd suspect "healthy" eggs must come from healthy hens, and the hens in this video don't look healthy to me.
The video not only revealed rotting corpses but also workers throwing chickens into trash cans to die and whipping birds around by their necks to kill them.
"Workers and supervisors would swing them around in an attempt to kill them and many of these hens would then suffer and have a slow, painful death, and callously kick them into manure pits," said Daniel Hauff of Mercy For Animals.State police and the district attorney's office raided the facility Wednesday.
"They have told us that they have substantiated the things we found in the facility as well," said Hauff.Please view the video, as this blog post does not do it justice.
Business as usual
It's as if the PR people in animal-abuse industries have the same playbook to refer to when an undercover investigation is revealed: feign outrage, punish lowly employees, declare that the abuse uncovered is not the norm.
Bob LeClair, a safety compliance officer at the egg facility, said the abuse was committed by only three workers.
"It's not the kind of behavior we expect," said LeClair. "We've identified those employees and we will meet with them today."Ironically the neglect and cruelty at this facility looked the same as Wegmans did in Adam Durand's undercover video shot five years ago.
Update (4/6/09): A representative from Eggland's Best replied to an e-mail I wrote the company yesterday. But her response contradicts itself.
Contrary to recent media reports, Eggland's Best has no relationship with Quality Eggs of Turner, Maine. Eggland's Best's New England-based franchisee is Radlo Foods, which is required to adhere to the company's stringent animal welfare regulations. Any violation of these regulations could lead to termination.If Eggland's Best has no dealings with the egg facility in the undercover video, why are they changing how they ship their "Classic Brown" eggs? And why do they say three other varieties "have never been involved"? That leads one to believe that the "Classic Brown" eggs have some connection to the facility in question.
[...]
As of today, Monday, April 6, Eggland's Best is shipping all Classic Brown eggs to New England from other locations. Eggland's Best White, Cage Free and Organic eggs have never been involved.
Update II (4/6/09): I swear -- is it so hard to just be upfront?
Thanks to Paul Shapiro, of The Humane Society of the United States, I now have an answer to the questions in my first update.
Today, Radlo Foods became the first national egg producer to commit to ending its confinement of hens in battery cages. The company's announcement followed a recent Mercy For Animals investigation that exposed grossly inhumane conditions for laying hens caged at Quality Egg of New England, some of whose eggs Radlo Foods distributed. This past weekend, Radlo Foods terminated its relationship with Quality Egg of New England, where Mercy For Animals exposed laying hens confined in tiny wire cages, hens suffering broken bones and infections, and employees kicking, breaking the necks of, and throwing live hens away in trash cans.[Emphasis is mine.]
While cage-free isn't all it's cracked up to be (pun not intended), I would have seen this move as a tiny success for the animals, had the next paragraph not said that this shift to cage-free chickens will be implemented within 10 years. Please. How many chickens will continue to live with rotting corpses and be kicked into and left to die in manure pits in the next 10 years?
(Image courtesy of Mercy For Animals.)
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1 comments:
The industry says that it has: "stringent animal welfare regulations". Right. I'd love to see what their "playbook" looks like that gives instructions on the proper euthanasia methods are for chickens. Probably just what was done: twisting their heads/breaking their necks. Not unlike the "common and acceptable practices" on hog farms - where even hanging pigs is "customarily accepted".
This is all "farms"... all of "animal agri-business". The "commodities" cease value (respect) if they are not going to be profitable. And all the gibberish about welfare is just meant to ease some people's minds who are gullible enough to want to believe the lies. The end.
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