An animal protection organization is throwing back the curtains on the West Coast's largest distributor of eggs, releasing a hidden-camera video that shows chickens being mistreated by handlers and locked in cages so small the birds can't spread their wings.
The footage, shot covertly by an undercover investigator with the group Mercy for Animals, shows workers kicking and stomping on chickens and snapping the necks of sick hens. It also shows birds left with untreated wounds and crowded into cages, sometimes amid rotting corpses.
Officials with the animal protection group said the video was shot this year at Gemperle Enterprises, a Turlock farming outfit that supplies giant NuCal Foods Inc., the biggest supplier of eggs in the western United States.
Nathan Runkle, executive director of the Chicago group, said animal protection activists believe such abuse is probably the rule rather than the exception for an industry that they contend puts profits ahead of humane treatment.
"Unfortunately, we believe this abuse is likely rampant across the country," Runkle said. "As long as these birds are treated like egg-producing machines, the abuse will likely continue."
NuCal Food referred calls to Chris Myles, a spokesman for the Pacific Egg and Poultry Assn. Myles said the association condemned many of the "graphic images and activities depicted in this film," calling them "in violation of our high standards for animal welfare."
He said the vast majority of egg and poultry farms in California operated in a humane and ethical manner.
The owner of Gemperle Enterprises said the animal group was using grainy and suspect video footage to make accusations that run counter to the policies and practices of his operation.
"What I saw on that video is not what our company does," said Steve Gemperle, a second-generation owner of the egg producer. "We do not accept any abuse of farm animals. It's against our values and morals."
Coming a few months after a similar video exposing mistreatment of cows at a Chino slaughterhouse prompted a nationwide beef recall, the footage is being made public today at a news conference to promote more humane treatment of penned farm animals.
The California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, which is on the November ballot, seeks to ensure that farm animals are not kept in cages or pens that allow them virtually no movement.
