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What would you call it when a company reportedly mutilates, drowns, and decapitates chickens while the birds feel every second of it? Cruel? Violent? Heartless? Well, Humane Farm Animal Care and the Global Animal Partnership are marketing it to you as “humane” or “animal welfare certified.”😑
Every week, Farmer Focus (formerly known as Shenandoah Valley Organic) kills about 600,000 chickens and sells their bodies as “certified humane.” According to a whistleblower, chickens’ wings and legs were bruised, broken, and dislocated during “catch and transport.”
Chickens reportedly came to the slaughterhouse stressed, flapping, and struggling—some even jumped off the conveyor belt to try to escape. Loud music playing in the “live hang” area evidently stressed the birds even more.
Workers allegedly “slammed” birds’ legs into shackles, hanging them upside down from a conveyor belt that carries them to an electrified bath that’s supposed to knock them out instantly. But the whistleblower said the overfilled and poorly maintained bath didn’t stun the chickens effectively. Some reportedly remained conscious and distressed and even drowned to death. 😰
The birds were then moved to the automatic kill blade—but instead of delivering a quick, deadly slash, the blade reportedly struck the necks, faces, and even the wings of panicking chickens.
Workers are supposed to slice the throats of birds who survive the automatic blade. But according to the whistleblower, the workers weren’t properly trained—because ofc they weren’t—and they didn’t kill the birds quickly. In “many cases,” the whistleblower says, bleeding birds were still alert when a machine ripped their heads off. 😱 Idk about you, but “humane” is the last word that comes to mind.
If you aren’t horrified yet, what the whistleblower told PETA about the Farmer Focus facility was disgusting af. The ceilings were reportedly leaking onto chicken carcasses that would be packaged and sold to consumers. 😨
The whistleblower told PETA that mice were regularly seen in production and storage areas, including one who was allegedly found drowned in a container that holds as much as 2000 pounds of bulk meat.
Plus, the “contaminated” water from backed-up drains apparently spread across the slaughterhouse floor, and chicken carcasses that fell to the floor were allegedly allowed to be washed and sold. 🤮 As if eating animal flesh couldn’t get any grosser.
Help Make a Change
Every year, slaughterhouses kill more than 9 billion chickens in the U.S. Chickens don’t deserve to go through this hell, and consumers don’t deserve to be tricked with meaningless “humane” and “welfare” labels. Please, go vegan and urge Global Animal Partnership’s board of directors to step down immediately!