The Center for Food Integrity (CFI) says that a Perdue contract grower must improve his culling program. The animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming took a video of flock conditions and showed it to the agency. The video was edited, but showed that the farmer need to fix his euthanasia protocols.
Animal welfare programs require farmers to inspect their animals twice a day. While the average mortality in birds is about 3 to 4%, in a flock of 30,000 birds 1,000 will die prematurely.
The video shows chicks with broken legs, defective legs, and beak deformities. Other chicks are lethargic and sick. The video is also disturbing because broiler chickens are bred for rapid growth rate and increased breast meat yields, so the birds must spend most of their time squatting because they can’t stand.
Dr. Ruth Newberry, with Washington State University and Norwegian University of Life Sciences said in a statement, “the incidence of these conditions should be documented by the farmer and the reasons should be investigated. Birds with incurable conditions should be detected at an early stage and euthanized immediately. It’s the humane thing to do.”
The video also shows that bedding is not changed between flocks. The experts who viewed the video said that it’s hard to access the quality of litter in a video, but that providing clean bedding is the farmer’s responsibility.
