Investigation dans un elevage de production d'oeufs de Californie
A film by Mercy For Animals
Activists release video of chickens abused at Calif. farm
FRESNO, Calif.
An animal rights group on Tuesday released undercover video showing chickens at a major California egg farm being mistreated by workers and housed in cages so small they can't spread their wings.
The Chicago-based nonprofit Mercy for Animals began circulating the footage as part of its campaign to promote a California ballot measure that would bar farms from confining hens, pregnant sows and calves in cages that are so restrictive the animals can scarcely turn around.
The group's executive director planned to submit the grainy images along with a criminal complaint to the Merced County district attorney on Wednesday, claiming the conditions at the farm broke California's animal cruelty laws.
The estimated 9.4 billion egg-laying hens and birds killed for meat consumption each year have no protections under federal animal welfare laws, according to the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture.
"We wanted to show consumers exactly what takes place behind the doors at these facilities when factory owners don't think the conditions are being filmed," said director Nathan Runkle, whose group promotes a vegan diet. "The hens are paying the hidden cost of factory-farm production."
Runkle said one of the nonprofit's investigators shot the footage on a hidden camera he wore during the two months he fixed cages and repaired machines at egg-laying sites in Delhi and Hilmar in the San Joaquin Valley.
The two facilities are owned by Turlock-based Gemperle Enterprises, which supplies NuCal Foods Inc., the largest distributor of shell eggs in the western United States. NuCal sells to several grocery chains including Trader Joe's, Raley's and SaveMart Supermarkets, Runkle said.
The video features close-ups of chickens with open, infected sores that are crowded into metal cages holding rotting bird corpses. It also shows a worker stomping on a sick hen as it flaps its wings to avoid being kicked into a manure pit.
Gemperle did not immediately returned calls for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday. But in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, owner Steve Gemperle questioned whether the footage actually was shot at one of its farms, but said the mistreatment shown in the video violates company policy.
Twice in the past two years, a separate animal rights group called Farm Sanctuary submitted video tapes and letters to Merced County law enforcement authorities showing other alleged abuses shot by an independent animal rights activist who penetrated Gemperle's facilities.
The group said it never heard back from authorities about the tapes.
"We are obviously not going to launch a persecution based on unsubstantiated video," Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse III said Tuesday. "If we have evidence of mistreatment of animals, it should be investigated by the sheriff's department, and if found to be legitimate, then should be forwarded to our office."
NuCal Foods referred calls to the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association, whose spokesman Chris Myles issued a statement saying egg farmers and ranchers strongly disapproved of the abuses the worker shot on hidden camera.
"Such images and actions are inconsistent, out-of-practice and in violation of our high standards for animal welfare," the statement said. "Our standards have been specifically developed by leading animal welfare scientists and researchers to promote and maintain humane, ethical and responsible animal care practices."
State Sen. Carole Migden said Tuesday she didn't believe the egg-industry animal welfare standard was sufficient and endorsed the ballot measure that will be decided by voters in November.
"I am horrified to see that farmers and workers would treat animals with such disregard," said Migden, D-San Francisco. "I don't think that is too much to ask from California's farms, and I am certain that consumers will embrace such compassionate changes in farm practices."