American Humane Association Slammed For Awarding "Humane" Certification To Slaughterhouse Caught On Video Torturing Animals

WASHINGTON, June 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Humane Association is in hot water after undercover video exposed workers at Foster Farms—a major poultry producer certified as "humane" by AHA—maliciously punching and throwing chickens, ripping out their feathers for fun, and birds scalded alive in feather-removal tanks. Bob Barker, 19-time Emmy Award-winning host of The Price Is Right and longtime animal advocate, narrates the hidden-camera video shot by undercover investigators with Mercy For Animals, a national animal protection charity.

Foster Farms is one of the largest poultry producers in the country and has been certified "humane" by Washington, DC-based American Humane Association since 2013. The disturbing video footage is available at www.AmericanHumaneScam.com.

MFA is hosting a tele-press conference at 11 a.m. Eastern Time at 323-452-6920.

The shocking undercover footage, recorded at several Foster Farms facilities in Fresno County, California, reveals:

• Workers punching and tormenting animals before violently slamming them into shackles
• Workers carelessly throwing baby chicks onto the ground with no regard for their welfare
• Evidence of birds scalded alive in hot water feather-removal tanks
• Chickens bred to grow so unnaturally fast they often suffer painful leg deformities and other injuries

American Humane Association "standards," which cover more than one 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.

Bob Barker and MFA are 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
• Ending selective breeding for rapid growth and shifting to slower-growing breeds to prevent health problems related to accelerated growth
• Providing birds with more space, clean litter, access to adequate light, and environmental enrichments
• Video monitoring systems that live-stream to the internet to deter egregious acts of violence against animals

"A more accurate label for this scam would be 'certified cruelty.' The lives of chickens at Foster Farms facilities are filled with abject misery and deprivation," said MFA's president, Nathan Runkle. "It's time for American Humane Association to stop deceiving consumers by rubber stamping the factory farming industry's cruelest practices. There is nothing humane about beating, throwing, and shocking animals and scalding them alive."

To view the undercover video, visit www.AmericanHumaneScam.com.

SOURCE Mercy For Animals