A viral TikTok video of a Canadian egg farm reveals the mass killing of around 52,000 chickens. The man who recorded the video appears to be a truck driver: “I got 52,000 chickens to load. Well not me, load—but to haul. ’Cause all of them had to be f***ing killed.”
In the video, a soft “thumping” can be heard as dead chickens drop from a conveyor belt into the back of a massive truck. The video then cuts to footage of workers transferring piles of chickens from wheelbarrows to the conveyor belt. One worker can be seen kicking the lifeless body of a bird onto the belt. From there, the camera pans to rows and rows of empty battery cages.
BREAKING: Animal Justice is looking for whistleblowers to come forward about secretive mass killings on Canadian farms, after shocking new footage was shared from an Ontario egg farm—where 52,000 chickens were allegedly killed due to COVID-19 & discarded like trash. (1/2) #CdnAg pic.twitter.com/llTRWvvHMq
— Animal Justice (@AnimalJustice) January 18, 2022
Canadian nonprofit Animal Justice shared the video, which brought further attention to the footage. Animal Justice also offered a cash reward for information about mass “depopulation” of animals at farms.
Depopulation—or the mass killing of animals at farms—has been common during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has created economic challenges across all industries, but some were less prepared than others. As a result of dangerous working conditions for vulnerable workers, slaughterhouses around the country became COVID-19 hotspots, forcing some to shut down. That, along with supply chain disruptions and fluctuations in demand, has created a “surplus” of animals at farms who cannot be sent to slaughter. This has led to cruel en masse killing of millions of animals at farms.
The media often tells this story through a cold economic lens, portraying mass depopulation as little more than a major profit loss or waste of food. This doesn’t just hide how unethical factory farming is; it also conceals a fact that the meat, dairy, and egg industries would like to keep secret: The enormous “waste” of animal lives is a constant cost of doing business—one not at all unique to the pandemic. This large-scale killing actually highlights the cruelty of an industry that quickly discards animals as if they were sacks of rotting potatoes.
You can stand up against this cruel industry by eating more plant-based foods. Check out ChooseVeg.com for resources, exciting food industry news, and more.
