Shocking video footage secretly recorded by Mercy For Animals at a Foster Farms chicken slaughterhouse in Fresno, California, has led to criminal animal cruelty charges against worker Gabriel Cevallos.





The graphic undercover video taken at Foster Farms—an American Humane Certified chicken producer—shows Cevallos ripping out fistfuls of feathers from live birds, repeatedly hitting a bird with a severed chicken leg, and tossing live birds around as if they were basketballs. Other workers were documented punching and tormenting animals before violently slamming them into shackles and carelessly throwing baby chicks onto the ground with no regard for their welfare.





Watch the footage that led to the conviction here:









Immediately following the investigation, MFA submitted a detailed legal complaint to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department calling for animal cruelty charges to be filed against the company and its workers. MFA praises the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department and District Attorney’s Office for pursuing justice for these abused and neglected animals.





American Humane Association “standards,” which cover more than 1 billion animals, fall far below those of virtually every other humane certification program and barely exceed even the minimal standards set by the factory farming industry itself. According to Consumer Reports, AHA’s program “does not require certain standards that consumers are likely to expect from a welfare label, and producers can be certified without fulfilling 100% of the requirements.” In addition to Foster Farms, AHA has certified some of the cruelest factory farms in North America, including Butterball and Hillandale Farms, which have also been caught on video abusing animals.





MFA is now calling on AHA and Foster Farms to stop lying to the public and implement meaningful animal welfare requirements, including replacing live-shackle slaughter methods with less cruel systems that eliminate the horrific suffering caused by dumping, shackling, shocking, and slitting the throats of conscious animals. We are also calling for an end to selective breeding for rapid growth and a shift to slower-growing breeds to prevent health problems related to accelerated growth. Birds should be provided with more space, clean litter, access to adequate light, and environmental enrichments. Video monitoring systems that live stream to the internet should also be installed to deter egregious acts of violence against animals.





Please take action by signing our petition urging American Humane Association and Foster Farms to implement meaningful animal welfare policies at once.





If you or a friend or family member purchased Foster Farms chicken products in the past year, please contact us at legal@mercyforanimals.org