Official FDS warning notes flies 'too numerous to count' and inadequate egg refrigeration; PETA Says Only Safe Egg Is No Egg at All.
PETA has just sent a letter calling on the Minnesota Department of
Agriculture to investigate Luoma Egg Ranch, Inc.—which keeps up to nearly a
million hens in 16 sheds—after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
warned the massive egg operation about "serious" and "significant"
violations of federal egg-safety regulations. The hens' welfare is of great
concern because of the filthy, crowded conditions, and so is consumer
health.
According to the recently obtained FDA report, agency inspectors found that
farm staff failed to test hens in at least two sheds for Salmonella
enterica, a dangerous bacteria that can cause diarrhea, vomiting, fever,
abdominal cramps, chronic arthritis, and even death in humans who ingest it.
When chickens carry the bacteria, it can contaminate the inside of their
eggs—and it can contaminate eggshells when eggs roll in hens' feces, as is
common on massive factory farms like Luoma. Inspectors also saw flies "too
numerous to count," trash stored in a cooler, eggs inadequately
refrigerated, and other violations. The FDA concluded that eggs from Luoma
may have been contaminated and "rendered injurious to health."
"This massive egg factory's innumerable flies, trash-filled cooler, and risk
of salmonella should frighten any reasonable person away from eating eggs,"
says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "PETA encourages
everyone to spare hens a lifetime of misery and protect their own health by
going vegan."
In 2014, Minnesota officials fined Luoma $95,000 after it reportedly
discharged manure into nearby streams and improperly disposed of dead
chickens. In 2011, the FDA warned Luoma after finding bird droppings—which
did not appear to be chicken manure—in one of its sheds and finding that the
farm's salmonella-testing records were inadequate.
In the U.S., egg farms cram hundreds of millions of hens into wire-floored
cages, each bird with less living space than a sheet of paper, for up to two
years. A recent PETA video exposé of a massive egg farm revealed that many
hens died after becoming trapped by a leg, a wing, or their head in the wire
mesh flooring of filthy cages. Those whose egg production had waned were
stuffed by workers into metal boxes and crudely gassed with carbon dioxide,
which is extremely painful.