Perdue Factory Farmer Arrested, Charged With Felonies For Stomping Chickens To Death

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Disturbing undercover video footage of animals being thrown against walls and stomped on at Perdue Farms—one of the largest poultry producers in the country—led to the arrest of a worker who now faces charges of multiple counts of felony animal cruelty filed by the Richmond County Sheriff's Office. The disturbing video footage that led to this arrest was released this morning at PerdueTorturesAnimals.com by the international animal protection charity Mercy For Animals.

MFA's director of investigations, Matt Rice, will host a tele-press conference at 10 a.m. Eastern Time at 800-708-3915.

A worker at Deese Farm and Hideaway Farms in Rockingham, North Carolina—both contract chicken factory farms for Perdue—was arrested on Tuesday evening and charged with four counts of felony animal cruelty for torturing chickens. He is currently being held on $10,000 bond. If convicted, he could face more than two years imprisonment for each felony count. MFA praises the Richmond County Sheriff's Office and District Attorney's Office for swiftly pursuing justice on behalf of these abused animals.

The undercover video footage reveals widespread animal abuse and suffering, including the following:

• Birds kicked like footballs, thrown against walls, and violently stomped to death by callous workers
• Chickens bred to grow so fast they became crippled under their own weight and died from heart attacks
• Hundreds of thousands of birds crammed into filthy, windowless sheds forced to live for months in their own waste
• Workers spinning birds around by their heads to break their necks

MFA is urging Perdue to adopt meaningful animal welfare policies to end many of the worst forms of animal abuse and neglect in its supply chain. This includes ending selective breeding for rapid growth and shifting to slower-growing breeds of birds to prevent health problems related to accelerated growth; providing birds with more space, clean litter, access to natural light, and environmental enrichments; and replacing live-shackle slaughter methods with less cruel systems that eliminate the horrific suffering caused by shackling, shocking, and slitting the throats of conscious animals.

"Extreme cruelty to animals is business as usual at Perdue," said MFA's president, Nathan Runkle. "Chickens are crammed into filthy, windowless sheds, kicked and thrown by careless workers, and bred to grow so fast they suffer from painful leg deformities and heart attacks. Perdue has not only the power, but also the ethical responsibility to end the worst forms of cruelty to animals in its supply chain. It's time Perdue took real steps to prevent the suffering of millions of animals."

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

SOURCE Mercy For Animals