You would think that a company certified by the American Humane Association, and which claims on its website to be working under a pledge to put the “highest priority on animal welfare,” actually abides by the animal welfare standards.
But the truth is shocking.
In a video filmed by activists from Mercy for Animals, a group based in Los Angeles, who went undercover during a visit to Foster Farms facilities in California, shows employees mistreating and “torturing” live chickens.
The hidden cameras planted across the facility revealed how chickens were being punched, thrown, beaten, plucked, hanged upside down and boiled alive without reason.
And the “torture” continues as birds were being crushed by trucks in a huge barn crowded with thousands of chickens.
Accordingly, Mercy For Animals issued a petition (9,000 signatures so far) calling on the watchdog (American Humane Association) to take action and “stop certifying blatant animal abuse.”
Animal rights groups have criticized the watchdog of having “standards too low to be labelled humane” and urged it to ban the use of scalding tanks and blades, advocating painless gas instead.
Foster Farms, which has a network of more than 100 producers on 7,000 farms, has suspended five employees since it started an internal investigation into the video.
Watch the video below showing shocking animal abuse (video may be distressing)