Maple Lodge Farms, one of Canada’s largest meat companies, has been caught a second time allowing hens to freeze to death en route to slaughter. The latest offense involved thousands of hens forced to suffer subfreezing temperatures in Quebec. A staggering 860 hens died. The Federal Court of Appeal in Canada fined the company $6,000.
Maple Lodge Farms was already on probation for causing undue suffering to chickens in 2013. This prior conviction resulted in an $80,000 fine and a court order requiring that the company spend $1 million to rectify its egregious practices.
Unfortunately, this latest violation is par for the course for Maple Lodge Farms. Indeed, MFA documented these same abuses at a Maple Lodge Farms slaughterhouse in 2015:
- Countless chickens transported in extreme cold arriving frozen to death
- Birds with their wings, heads, or other body parts trapped and crushed in transport cage doors
- Live animals left in transport crates and sent through scalding industrial washing machines
- Chickens violently slammed upside down into metal shackles before being painfully shocked and having their throats cut open
- Workers directed by managers to hang sick and severely injured animals on the slaughter line along with birds intended for human consumption
Watch the shocking footage below:
Sadly, Canada’s outdated animal transport regulations result in the deaths of millions of animals each year.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
You can help hens and other animals in Canada by signing our petition demanding Maple Lodge Farms stop torturing animals.
Ultimately, the best way to protect animals from needless suffering is simply to leave them off your plate. Get started at ChooseVeg.com.