It seems that notorious egg baron Austin “Jack” DeCoster and his son Peter will finally serve prison time this winter for their role in sickening as many as 56,000 consumers with salmonella-tainted factory-farmed eggs back in 2010. Earlier this week, a federal appeals court rejected the DeCosters' last-ditch effort to avoid prison.





According to the Associated Press , the DeCosters’ business Quality Egg of New England “knowingly shipped eggs with false processing and expiration dates to fool state regulators and retail customers about their age and bribed a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector at least twice to approve sales of poor-quality eggs.”





After a criminal investigation and lengthy trial, Quality Egg pled guilty in 2014 to felony charges and was fined $6.8 million. Jack and Peter DeCoster also pled guilty to misdemeanors, and were each fined $100,000 and sentenced to three months in federal prison. They have avoided serving their time through a series of legal appeals, but that appears to have ended Tuesday when the appeals court decided once and for all that the DeCosters must go to prison.





Mercy For Animals went undercover at one of the DeCosters’ facilities in 2009. We found workers whipping birds around by their heads in cruel attempts to break their necks and hens suffocating in trash cans and kicked into manure pits to drown or starve. As a result of our investigation, the company was convicted of 10 counts of animal cruelty and ordered to pay more than $130,000 in fines and restitution.





Watch the footage of that investigation here:









Until recently, Jack DeCoster was behind one of the country’s largest egg empires, even as he became infamous as a “ habitual violator ” of labor, environmental, and animal welfare laws. Today, DeCoster still has financial ties to a handful of factory egg farms—one in Ohio was recently busted for using forced child labor —but his empire is a shadow of its former self. The fact that he has lasted this long speaks volumes about an industry that puts profit over people, animals, and the environment.





To avoid supporting people like Jack DeCoster and their cruel and illegal practices, please consider moving toward a healthy and humane plant-based diet. Click here to find out how.



