Earlier today, Mercy For Animals filed a
false advertising complaint with the California attorney general against Foster
Farms and American Humane Association for torturing animals and lying to the
public about it.
The complaint comes on the heels of an
announcement by the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office that criminal
animal cruelty charges were filed against Foster Farms employee Gabriel
Cevallos, who was caught on hidden camera ripping out fistfuls of feathers from
live birds, repeatedly hitting a bird with a severed chicken leg, and tossing
live birds around as if they were basketballs.
Cevallos was charged with violating California’s animal cruelty laws after an MFA undercover
investigation of several Foster Farms facilities showed multiple Foster Farms workers
throwing baby chicks onto the ground with no regard for their welfare and punching,
beating, and torturing birds before violently slamming them into shackles. MFA
also uncovered evidence of birds scalded alive in hot water feather-removal
tanks.
Watch the footage that led to the charges here:
Despite clear evidence of ongoing and
malicious animal abuse at multiple Foster Farms facilities, AHA continues to
award the poultry company its “American Humane Certified seal of approval. MFA
is asking the attorney general’s office to take action against Foster Farms and
AHA by prohibiting use of the meaningless American Humane Certified logo on
Foster Farms chicken products.
AHA
“standards, which cover more than 1 billion animals, fall far below those of
virtually every other humane certification program and barely exceed even the
minimal standards set by the factory farming industry itself. According to Consumer
Reports, AHA’s
program “does not require certain standards that consumers are likely to expect
from a welfare label, and producers can be certified without fulfilling 100% of
the requirements. In addition to Foster Farms, AHA has certified some of the
cruelest factory farms in North America, including Butterball and Hillandale Farms, which have also been
caught on video abusing animals.
American
Humane Certified producers like Foster Farms are permitted to cram hundreds of
thousands of birds inside dark, windowless sheds with no access to sunlight or
outdoor space for their entire lives. AHA standards allow factory farms to
mutilate animals without painkillers, including burning off the tips of birds’
sensitive beaks. Despite endorsing less cruel systems in 2010, AHA also
continues to allow Foster Farms and other producers to slaughter chickens using
outdated systems that dump, shackle, shock, and slit the throats of
conscious animals. Birds subjected to such killing systems routinely endure
physical violence from workers who throw, kick, and punch them.
Please take action by
signing our
petition urging AHA and Foster Farms to implement
meaningful animal welfare policies at once.
Remember, the best way to
prevent needless cruelty to these birds and other farmed animals is to leave meat,
eggs, and dairy off our plates. Visit ChooseVeg.com to
order a copy of our free Vegetarian
Starter Guide.
For more information, visit
www.AmericanHumaneScam.com.