"What really hit home is that these chicks are babies,” the investigator added. “They’re latching onto you, peeping and following you around. They want support, but that’s the last thing they’re going to get.”
An undercover investigation by Animal Outlook captured footage of
chicks being maimed, mutilated, gassed, and ground up alive at a
major chicken hatchery in what could amount to criminal animal
cruelty, the animal welfare nonprofit alleged.
Case Farms, one of the top 15 U.S. chicken producers, processes up
to 200,000 chickens each day, according to Animal Outlook. The
company reports on its website that “the welfare of animals under
our care is of utmost importance.”
“Case Farms, alongside our contract growers, share a committed
responsibility to ensure the well-being and humane handling of all
animals in our care,” the company wrote. “We also provide vigorous
routine oversight and relentlessly pursue continuous improvements in
bird health and environmental conditions.”
But undercover video taken inside a North Carolina hatchery showed
horrific treatment of animals, including bleeding baby birds left
chirping in crowded trays and chicks caught, trapped, and injured in
machinery.
The investigator, who is not being named due to the sensitive nature
of undercover work, told Lady Freethinker (LFT) the most horrific
thing witnessed was “probably a chick who had his eyeball hanging
out” and the young age of the animals impacted.
“What really hit home is that these chicks are babies,” the
investigator added. “They’re latching onto you, following you
around. They want support, but that’s the last thing they’re going
to get.”
Case Farms did not respond to media inquiries prior to publication
of this story.
Other treatment of the baby animals included chicks crushed after
workers dragged heavy plastic trays over them or drove over them
with machinery; injured or deformed chicks left in trays with
deceased birds for hours on end; and some chicks dumped into a
macerator to be ground up alive while still fully conscious, as
alleged by Animal Outlook.
Chicks who survive the hatchery are transported to grow-out
facilities before being killed as young as six weeks old, according
to Animal Outlook.
Cheryl Leahy, Animal Outlook’s executive director, said these
conditions appeared to be “business as usual.”
“It’s clear that Case Farms does not take seriously its legal and
ethical duties of care toward the millions of animals it brings into
the world each month,” Leahy said. “It is incumbent upon us all as
part of a caring society to ensure systemic abusers like this are
held accountable.”
Animal Outlook has notified local law enforcement and requested
criminal charges if the farm is found to be in violation of North
Carolina animal cruelty and neglect laws, according to the
nonprofit’s press release.
The investigator said another desired outcome would be for Case
Farms to shift production to non-animal products, as some other big
companies already have done.
Meanwhile, undercover investigators will continue their critical
work of documenting conditions that consumers may never otherwise
see behind factory farms’ closed doors.
Those eye-opening videos also can inspire others to join the cause;
investigative footage was what originally inspired the investigator
at Case Farms to make a difference for animals through undercover
work.
“Watching the investigation videos made me feel I had to do more to
be in the fight,” the investigator told LFT. “I don’t really feel
like it takes courage to do this work, because I’m not the one
getting abused. I’m just the one with the camera. No matter how much
I have to take, what the animals are taking is so much more.”