N.C. poultry worker arrested after video shows him stomping, throwing chickens

Greg Toppo | USATODAY

A graphic undercover video depicting a poultry worker stomping chickens, breaking their necks and throwing them against a wall has prompted authorities in North Carolina to file criminal charges against the worker, the latest in an ongoing battle over animal rights playing out in U.S. factory farms and slaughterhouses.

The video was uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday by the animal rights group Mercy For Animals, which said the worker was arrested on animal abuse charges on Tuesday.

Police in Richmond County, N.C., could not immediately confirm the claim, but the county district attorney said criminal charges had been filed.

The farm, located in Rockingham, N.C., supplies poultry to Perdue Farms Inc. A Perdue spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company was investigating.

"We do take these things seriously and we have very strict policies in terms of our farmers complying to our policies," said Perdue spokeswoman Julie DeYoung.

In a statement, Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, a veterinarian who oversees live production for Perdue, said: "We are appalled by the mistreatment and abuse by a contract catching crew and farm worker shown in the video. We are deeply disturbed that birds with obvious leg or health issues were left to suffer."

Stewart-Brown said Perdue was "committed to working with law enforcement to identify everyone involved and hope that Mercy For Animals will cooperate to facilitate those efforts. We are committed to taking aggressive action to hold those involved accountable and to prevent similar behavior in the future."

Perdue said it had no reason to believe that any company employees knew of the alleged abuse.

Mercy For Animals said the footage was shot at Deese Farm, one of a pair of poultry farms with a capacity of about 160,000 chickens.

Matt Rice, director of investigations for Mercy For Animals, said the video was secretly recorded by one of its investigators who had applied for a job at Deese and worked there from Oct. 30 through Dec. 4. Using a hidden camera, the worker filmed for "several hours a day" and witnessed abuse on a daily basis, Rice said.

He said the undercover investigator saw daily instances of birds that were sick, injured or simply not growing fast enough. Workers were tasked with quickly culling any birds that couldn't be sold, he said. That led to the abuse recorded on the video.

"This was happening on a daily basis to many birds in the facility," Rice said. "Ultimately the fault lies with the industry for creating the environment for this to happen, and also the lack of training and oversight in these facilities to prevent this type of abuse."

Rice said the investigator reported the abuse to supervisors, but that the worker on video wasn't removed from the job. The investigator also found a training manual that included a phone number for a Perdue hotline, but the call went straight to a fax line. Mercy For Animals provided the number to USA TODAY, which confirmed the claim.

The video was released just weeks before North Carolina is about to enact what some animal-rights activists call an “ag-gag” law that would make it difficult for groups like MFA to conduct undercover investigations in the state without facing legal repercussions.

A broadly-worded bill passed in the North Carolina legislature in June gives a business owner the right to sue someone for gaining access to private areas of a business to gain workplace secrets or collect footage of workplace violations. Supporters of the legislation, which goes into effect Jan. 1, say it helps protect businesses and bolster private property rights.

Several other states, including Iowa, Missouri and Utah, have passed similar legislation in recent years. In August, a federal judge in Idaho overturned a law in that state that prohibited undercover videos at factor farms as unconstitutional because it violated the 1st Amendment.

DeYoung said Perdue doesn't issue a training manual, but that it does maintain a confidential reporting line for any issues, including fraud, supervisor mistreatment or animal cruelty. She said the number the investigator dialed was clearly incorrect. "It certainly shouldn't go to a fax machine."

DeYoung said Perdue provides "poultry welfare training" for all contract producers and caretakers that includes "multiple channels for reporting concerns, improper acts or abuse." She said Perdue is working to make sure that all the farms in which its chickens are raised "have the right number."

Rice said the undercover investigator found, as in previous cases, that the chickens were bred to grow so quickly that they often became crippled by their own weight. In some cases, he said, they died as the result of organ failure.

In the video, an unidentified worker claims, "They're growing so fast, their heart can't keep up with the demand … and it keeps happening. They have a heart attack."

The video also suggests that some chickens suffer from deformed legs and can't stand to reach food and water.

"All of these birds had been bred to grow so fast that they suffered from crippling leg deformities" and other ailments, Rice said.

Deese Farm didn't immediately comment on the video or the cruelty charges. An unidentified person who answered a call to the farm said simply, "We don't know anything" about the charges.

For the past six years, Mercy For Animals has taken aim at fast-food suppliers with similar undercover videos. Founded in 1999, the Los Angeles-based group has conducted more than 40 investigations of livestock and poultry farms and slaughterhouses.

In 2011, McDonald's and Target called on their U.S. egg supply chain manager, Cargill Inc., to end its relationship with Sparboe Farms in Litchfield, Minn., after Mercy For Animals released undercover video of farm workers swinging a chicken by a rope or chain, and another of a worker shoving a hen in a co-worker's pants pocket.

A 2012 video showing Idaho dairy workers abusing cows at a farm supplying Burger King led to criminal convictions.

More recently, the group spotlighted a Tennessee chicken farm contracted by Tysons to produce poultry for McDonald's chicken nuggets. Secretly recorded video appeared to show operators clubbing small and sickly birds to death. Authorities in Weakley County, Tenn., filed criminal animal cruelty charges against the operators last September, alleging that they "knowingly tortured and maimed" chickens.

The video is available on YouTube. Warning: Some viewers may find the content disturbing.

Contributing: Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY