Disturbing undercover
video footage of animals being thrown against walls and stomped to death at
Perdue Farms—one of the largest poultry producers in the country—led to the
arrest of a worker, Danny Miranda, who was charged with four counts of felony
animal cruelty. If convicted, he could face more than two years imprisonment
for each count.
This marks the first time in U.S. history that felony
charges have been filed for cruelty to factory-farmed chickens following an undercover
investigation.
But sadly, this abuse runs rampant. At Perdue Farms,
chickens are treated as mere meat-producing machines whose short lives are
filled with misery and deprivation. Perdue purposely breeds chickens to grow so
unnaturally fast they often suffer from painful leg deformities and frequently
die in agony from organ failure, including heart attacks. These poor birds are
also forced to live for weeks or months in their own waste inside filthy,
windowless factory farm sheds.
Watch the shocking undercover investigation that led to the
arrest and criminal charges against a Perdue farm worker here:
While we praise law enforcement for swiftly pursuing justice
on behalf of these abused animals, we are also calling on Perdue to adopt
meaningful animal welfare policies to end many of the worst forms of cruelty in
its supply chain.
Specifically, we are calling on Perdue to stop selective
breeding for rapid growth and shift to slower-growing breeds of birds to
prevent health problems; provide birds with more space, clean litter, access to
natural light, and environmental enrichments; and replace
live-shackle slaughter methods with less cruel systems that eliminate the
horrific suffering caused by shackling, shocking, and slitting the throats of
conscious animals.
Please sign our petition
today to make sure Perdue knows that this cruelty will not be tolerated,
and that real change must be implemented.
And remember, every one of us can take a stand against
animal abuse every time we sit down to eat by choosing delicious meat-free alternatives to chicken
and other animal products.