CANDID CAMERA: Undercover video of a Tyson employee reveals ‘free-range’ chicken is meaningless
The investigation’s most revealing finding has nothing to do with the horrible conditions of the estimated 750,000 chickens at the facility. Instead, it is the secretly recorded conversation between the farm manager and a Tyson's 'broiler' technician advisor. In this recording, the technician freely acknowledged that the chicken industry’s 'free-range' labels are essentially meaningless, a rare instance of an industry insider saying the quiet part out loud.
KENNY TORRELLA: Last fall, an undercover investigator worked for two months at a Virginia farm outside Richmond that raises chickens on contract for Tyson Foods, America’s largest chicken company. During their short stint on behalf of the Washington, DC-based animal rights group Animal Outlook, the investigator documented hours upon hours of the typical horrors found on chicken factory farms: tens of thousands of birds stuffed into dark warehouse-sized barns, many of them severely injured with gruesome lesions, injuries, and deformities. At more than one point, birds are deprived of feed or water, and there was also a rat infestation and footage of bugs crawling in the chickens’ feed.
The conditions are visibly at odds with Tyson’s advertising claims that it treats animals humanely and raises “happy” and “healthy” chickens. “It’s just a living nightmare,” the investigator, who requested anonymity due to the covert nature of undercover investigations, told Vox. “A video just does not do it any justice”…
Animal Outlook’s investigator also documented bugs crawling in the chickens’ feed, and rat infestations — problems echoed by the Tyson technician in the undercover video. “The little baby chicks are gonna peck at those bugs, eat them, and then they’re gonna die,” Tyson’s technician told the farm manager in a conversation recorded by the investigator. “You got rats in there, you got fresh rat activity in all your houses.” Despite these known issues, Animal Outlook alleges Tyson delivered fresh chicks to the farm…
Despite the horrific findings, they’re not all that different from the conditions documented at other farms that raise chickens for Tyson and Tyson’s competitors. But the investigation’s most revealing finding had nothing to do with the conditions of the estimated 750,000 chickens raised annually at the Jetersville, Virginia, facility. Instead, it emerged from a surprisingly candid conversation the investigator secretly recorded between the farm manager and a Tyson Foods “broiler technician advisor,” who worked with Tyson chicken farms in the area. In the video recording, the technician freely acknowledged that the chicken industry’s “free-range” labels were essentially meaningless — a rare instance of an industry insider saying the quiet part out loud…
In the video, the technician also appears to make an allegation to the manager that Tyson doesn’t feel the need to improve conditions at the facility because of a lack of competing chicken companies in the area. “Tyson doesn’t want to pay for anything — not here, at least,” she said. “We don’t have any competition here, so they don’t have to do extra stuff here. They do extra stuff at other complexes where they got other producers”…
Animal Outlook hoped criminal charges would be brought against Tyson, in addition to employees of the contract farm… Animal Control brought it to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, which then forwarded the complaint to the Virginia Attorney General’s office, according to Animal Outlook attorney Jareb Gleckel… In August, after this story was initially published, the contract farm owner and manager were each charged with multiple counts of criminal animal cruelty under Virginia law. Neither Tyson nor any of its direct employees have been charged. SOURCE…
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