Undercover Investigations: Exposing Animal Abuse
Behind the closed doors of our nation's factory farms, slaughterhouses and hatcheries, billions of animals suffer out of sight, and out of mind. These animals know no kind touch or compassionate care, only a life filled with intensive confinement, abusive handling, painful mutilations, careless neglect, and merciless slaughter.
Though these animals struggle, kick and scream, their cries all too often fall on the deaf ears of profit-driven factory farm producers, who view these sentient and intelligent creatures as mere production units and commodities.
But what animal abusers work so hard to conceal from public view, Mercy For Animals works diligently to expose.
Wired with hidden cameras, MFA's team of undercover investigators documents the harsh realities of industrial animal agriculture – where cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys are subjected to a life of misery that few could even imagine.
Hidden Cameras, Exposed Truths
Learn more about MFA's most recent undercover investigations below.
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Hy-Line Hatchery – Iowa, 2009
Hatching over 300,000 chicks each day, Hy-Line is the largest hatchery of egg-laying breed chicks in the world. An MFA investigator documented the harsh, industrial nature of today's hatchery environment – where day-old chicks are thrown, mutilated without painkillers, dropped, and neglected to die. This investigation, which sparked international outcry, revealed the standard industry practice of throwing unwanted male chicks into a grinding machine while still alive. These chicks are useless to the industry because they do not produce eggs or grow large or fast enough to be raised for meat.
Watch the undercover footage
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Quality Egg of New England – Maine, 2009
The largest egg farm in New England, this factory farm confines millions of brown egg-laying hens in tiny battery-cages – so restrictive that the birds can't fully spread their wings or walk freely. MFA's hidden camera footage exposed birds trapped in the wire of their cages and workers throwing live birds into trash bins and breaking their necks.
The investigation prompted the Maine Department of Agriculture, and State Police, to raid the farm on grounds of animal cruelty. Grocery chains nationwide also dropped the farm as an egg supplier, following MFA's expose.
Watch the undercover footage
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Norco Ranch – California, 2008
Just four weeks before California voters went to the polls to cast their ballots on Proposition 2 – a modest initiative requiring that egg-laying hens in the state be given enough room to walk, stand and stretch their limbs – MFA released startling footage from inside Norco Ranch, the state's largest egg producer. The video showed birds packed in cages so tightly that they could hardly move, live birds neglected on dead piles, and hens injured and trapped by cage wire.
Prop 2 passed with overwhelming support - making California the first state in the nation to ban battery-cages.
Watch the undercover video
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Gemperle Enterprises – California, 2008
An egg supplier to major grocery chains across the western United States, Gemperle Enterprises is one of the nation's largest egg producers. Covert footage recorded at the facility by an MFA investigator uncovered hens left to suffer from untreated injuries and infections and workers roughly cramming birds into cages, tearing birds out of cages by their fragile wings, kicking, stomping and throwing them, and hurling them into "kill carts."
Watch the undercover footage
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House of Raeford Farms – North Carolina, 2007
Working in the "live-hang" area of this massive turkey slaughterhouse (where live birds are snapped into shackles on the slaughter line), MFA's investigator secretly filmed workers throwing, punching, kicking and ripping the heads off of live birds.
The investigation also revealed conscious and thrashing turkeys having their throats slit - spotlighting the disturbing reality that birds are exempt from the federal Humane Slaughter Act.
Watch the undercover footage
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Going Undercover with MFA: A History of Results
Mercy For Animals has achieved major, measurable successes through our investigations. Following our first two egg farm exposés, Giant Eagle grocers pledged to boycott eggs from producers who "force molt" their hens – the practice of shocking hens into a laying cycle by depriving them of light and food. In response to the House of Raeford investigation, numerous employees were fired and Denny's restaurant chain ended its supplier relationship with the slaughterhouse.
Similarly, grocery giant Trader Joe's terminated its business relationship with California egg producer, Gemperle Enterprises, after MFA exposed the egg farm's merciless practices. Recently, MFA investigations have helped pass landmark legislation; prompted one of the country's largest egg producers to move away from battery cages; led law enforcement to raid an investigated facility; raised international awareness of the egg industry's disturbing practice of killing unwanted male chicks by throwing them into grinding machines; and enlightened countless consumers through thousands of television, newspaper and radio stories.
Get Active: How You Can Help
- Donate now! Make a tax-deductible contribution to support Mercy For Animals' life-saving work on behalf of the most abused and neglected creatures on earth: farmed animals. Click here for information on joining MFA's monthly giving club, and click here for information on joining The Hope Society.
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