Costco Condemned For Animal Cruelty Over Its $5 Rotisserie Chickens
Undercover investigation into Costco farm finds “countless” chickens endure short lives of chronic pain before succumbing to ailments including open wounds, ammonia burns, and broken bones.
Credit: Mercy For Animals
An investigation into Costco has found chickens on one of their farms to be living in shockingly cruel and painful conditions.
Costco is famous for its popular $5 rotisserie chickens and claims that animal welfare is a “critical component that has been integrated into all aspects of the chicken supply chain.”
But now undercover footage reveals the “terrible living conditions” where tightly-packed chickens live for weeks in their own waste. Investigators say that the chickens raised for Costco are bred to grow so large so fast that they often cannot support their own weight. The chickens grow huge unnatural breasts, which means the chickens struggle to walk and many die from organ failure.
Countless birds had open wounds, ammonia burns, broken bones, and twisted necks and beaks. Many of these animals endured short lives of chronic pain before succumbing to their ailments, says Mercy for Animals (MFA), who conducted the investigation.
“They’re living on their own feces, with no fresh air and no natural light,” explained Leah Garcés, the president of Mercy for Animals. “I don’t think it’s what a Costco customer expects.”
Human rights-journalist Nicholas Kristof broke the shocking investigation in his weekly column for The New York Times.
Costco sells over 100 million of its rotisserie chickens every year, which Kristoff points out is part of the problem: in the race to drive prices down and ‘produce’ meat faster than ever, companies have sacrificed animal welfare. He explains,
“future generations will look back at our mistreatment of livestock and poultry with pain and bafflement. They will wonder how we in the early 21st century could have been so oblivious to the cruelties that delivered $4.99 chickens to a Costco rotisserie”.
And he describes the Costco’s treatment of millions of chickens as “torture” and “abuse”. “Torture a single chicken in your backyard, and you risk arrest. Abuse tens of millions of them? Why, that’s agribusiness”.
Mercy for Animals are now urging consumers to call on Costco to do the right thing and implement basic animal welfare conditions to help improve the lives of chickens on its farms.
And if you’re ready to try some delicious plant-protein instead of chicken meat, check out our guide to the tastiest plant-based meat.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.