“American Humane Certified” Is A Scam
Posted by Michelle Moquin on August 23rd, 2016
Good morning.
Many of you know the strong affinity I have for all animals. I speak about my beloved Lucy every now and then. With so much going on in the world with humans hurting and killing humans, I have neglected to post about my furry and feathered friends for quite some time.
Perusing Facebook, I run across so many cute videos of animals, especially our domestic pals. Last week, I came across a horrific video depicting the cruel and inhumane treatment of chickens – chickens raised and packaged by Foster Farms. I don’t buy Foster Farms chickens but I know they are widely sold throughout California and beyond.
I am going through a challenging time in my family concerning a beloved animal so I am extra sensitive over the fact that animals cannot speak for themselves and need advocates to fight for them. I’ve always been an animal activist and I will always be one.
In 2008 I was very verbal about getting Prop 2 passed which required, amongst other things, that by January 1, 2015, egg-laying hens raised in California be able to stand up, lie down, turn around, and fully extend their wings. It was a huge step in favor of the hens.
Unfortunately “cage free” doesn’t always mean that the animals will have a good life. And the label “Humanly Raised” isn’t always the truth.
From the LA Times:
Foster Farms suspends 5 workers after chicken slaughter video released
Foster Farms’ “Simply Raised” chicken bears the American Humane Assn. certification. An animal rights group, Mercy for Animals, released a video Wednesday that it says shows cruel practices at Foster Farms plants in California. (Foster Farms)
A video purporting to show inhumane slaughter practices at a Foster Farms chicken plant in Fresno County has led to the suspension of five workers and a criminal investigation by the sheriff’s office.
Mercy for Animals released graphic video footage showing chickens that appeared to have bypassed the slaughter knife and wound up being scalded to death in a plucking tank. Workers also can be seen throwing and shoving birds, while other footage showed what appeared to be overcrowding of live birds.
Foster Farms said it has suspended five employees and is cooperating with a Fresno County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
“It is Foster Farms’ policy to take disciplinary action against animal welfare violations up to and including termination of employees,” Foster Farms said in a written statement. “Foster Farms is reinforcing animal welfare training companywide and in its plants.”
The advocacy group, based in West Hollywood, sent two investigators to work at the plants, and they gathered hours of footage in March and April at a facility where chicks are raised for slaughter, and another where adult chickens are killed and prepared for market.
Watch:
“The cruelty that we documented at Foster Farms was ongoing. It was widespread and it was rampant,” said Vandhana Bala, general counsel for the group. The three-minute video, she said, was just “a representative sample” of the behavior recorded at the facilities.
One of the group’s investigators reported the situation to his supervisor and to a company hot line but saw no remedial action, Bala said.
In its complaint, the organization cited “an ongoing pattern of criminal animal cruelty that was permitted to go unchecked and uncorrected by Foster Farms management.”
A spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said the case has been referred to the agency’s agricultural crimes task force.
The revelations come amid a campaign by the group, alleging that the poultry company’s certification by the American Humane Assn. masks poor animal welfare practices.
Mark Stubis, a spokesman for the American Humane Assn., said organization officials met Wednesday with Foster Farms regarding the content of the video, which he called “surprising.”
“Foster Farms has worked very hard to create a culture of humane treatment,” Stubis said. “In the three years that we’ve been working with them, they have never failed an audit. This is an extremely rare situation for us.”
Those audits are conducted by independent auditors that check about 200 standards established by the association, he said.
“The certification program can’t stop one or two employees who break those rules,” Stubis said. “We certainly expect any certified farm to take immediate corrective action against anyone who abuses animals.”
Bala said the organization may take other legal action against the company and the association regarding the certification logo displayed on chicken meat.
“It’s a betrayal of both the animals and the consumers who are purchasing these products based on the existence of that certified humane logo,” Bala said.
🐥❤️🐥
Readers: As you can see, sociopaths live on the farm too. They start off torturing and killing innocent helpless animals and if they have the chance they move onto humans.
It’s challenging when we see videos of people who are perfectly OK with injecting humans with something hurtful – it has been done before – If people are accepting of that evil why would anyone be concerned about a few (10′s of thousands!) chickens being slaughtered by a knife and scalded while still alive till death?
But I can’t help it. My heart cries for them as it does for humans. I know that we are not able to take action on everything but if this pulls at your heart like it does mine I HOPE it inspires you to check it out and do something. Here’s two ways to get involved: Mercy for Animals. Sign the petition at Change.org. Thank you.
Thoughts? Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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August 23rd, 2016 at 3:25 pm
I saw this several weeks ago while in US, it grosses me out and made me angry. I will never buy Tyson products ever. Large companies like this get away with some horrifying business practices and treatment of animals and humans. Ugh how do you stop the vileness of people who are ok with acting this way??
Hope everything works out for the best with your family animal situation. Reading that made me think of my Elke & Ziggy, I miss those 2 fun kooks still…and I remember how cute Lucy is, I’m getting a doggie like that someday when this life has a little less travel going on. Not sure when that’ll be bc I’m in wanderlust mode now, luv being somewhere different and I doubt I’ll lose that feeling.
Back to trump though, while I was in US I was in a bar/restaurant the caters to navy seals (ex and current, white, black and Latino, all in amazing physical shape) the atmosphere is decidedly republican, know why? Not because they even like him, but republicans fund the military heavily, they believe dems will not, the end. Not that that’s a huge population segment but if a group (any group) knows they’ll get little funding they’re going to vote other side regardless of lack of qualifications. Nothing shocks me really anymore in life or politics but I’m sure there’s plenty of trump supporters that fall in even just this category.
Just sayin’ *sigh* it’s one of the reasons his polls numbers are what they are, he could be anybody in this instance. I’m sure there are other things that add to his republican popularity also. It’s kind of sickening.
Luv, Zen Lill
August 23rd, 2016 at 8:18 pm
Word!
https://youtu.be/JwclVS3nVNs
<3 Charles Blow
/SB
August 23rd, 2016 at 8:25 pm
In regards to your post today Michelle,
I too never buy corporate meats. The inhumanity is gut wrenching. Seeing a football field sized warehouse packed wall to wall with chickens being sucked up into a vacuum type apparatus by a desensitized worker turned me off many years ago. I could not in good conscience purchase such an item. I do believe in the saying we vote with our dollars.
I urge everyone to become more self sufficient in providing their nutritional intake. Grow vegetables. Keep chickens or ducks for eggs. Learn to can your garden bounty. Keep a catalog of seeds. I believe those that do will have a healthier survival. One day I hope to have a little farm all to myself.
/SB
/SB
August 24th, 2016 at 6:31 am
Social Butterfly#2, thanks for the link. I know a few OTWs who support trump. As a white person, I see the stupidity.
But I find it difficult to be too hard on them because white women who are my friends and relatives support trump.
Same idiocy.
August 24th, 2016 at 6:32 am
I never knew foster farms was that bad. I will not buy that brand again.
August 24th, 2016 at 6:43 am
Zen Lill, I am an ex Seal. Manny of my friends and associates are republicans too. I was also during my service.
Frankly it is because most of us have little common sense. The fact that we can accomplish our missions doesn’t make us deep thinkers.
Reading this blog and being prodded by my sister who turned me on to this blog changed my mind.
Discovering that the republican party doesn’t mind giving money to the military to die for its causes sickens me.
Bush sent us into harms way for political and economic reasons that had nothing to do with the safety of the USA.
August 24th, 2016 at 6:47 am
Social Butterfly#3, I am going to give your idea about growing a garden a try. I live in Columbus GA so this is a very good idea for me.
Thanks
August 24th, 2016 at 6:52 am
Zen Lill, I am in the military. You are right about it being mostly republican. That is because it operates on the herd mentality theory where politics is concerned.
It they thought about it seriously they would not support the republican party. Many arguments on this blog attest to the fact that the republicans never fund veteran bills.
It is the democratic party that funds the military’s personal when they need medical assistance after their service.
Thank you Michelle for the many articles that brought this to my attention.
August 24th, 2016 at 6:58 am
Zen Lill, I am in a part of the military that does clandestine service for our country. Many of us who are OTWs work along side our white brothers in battle know that when the service is over we will not be treated as we are when we depend on each other for our survival on a mission.
We, OTWs know that to most of our white colleagues, we are a necessary “evil” they suffer to accomplish the mission. Most try to keep us out.
Others try to divide and conquer by placing Latino against black and asians against us all. Some of us see through the bullshit. Others just go along to get along and accomplish the mission.
So we tolerate the republican bullshit until we get in those voting booths.
August 24th, 2016 at 6:59 am
Zen Lill, not all military members are fools. I don’t support the republican party, and if I did I would not support trump.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:00 am
Social Butterfly#3, I showed your comment to my two roommates and we decided to try our hand at a vegetable garden.
Thanks
August 24th, 2016 at 7:07 am
Zen Lill, don’t take what you hear in a bar as the gospel. I am in the military. I am white. I agree with my buddies when they spew that republican garbage because I know that they are voting “for the white male’s survival.”
Most have been convinced that the privileges of being a white male are being threatened by the democrats. Me, I’ve been in the military 18 years. I have seen combat at least 11 of those years. Many of my associates didn’t make it back whole or alive.
I refuse to support a party that takes the lives of its military so casually as to put them in harms way for bullshit reasons.
The republican party does this because their children, friends, or associates get a free pass from exposure.
Thanks Michelle for all you do to expose the bastards.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:15 am
Zen Lill being willing to die for your country doesn’t give us in the military any special knowledge about international politics or military strategy.
I am a field grade officer in the military. We basically do as we are told. We serve where we are sent. If we don’t become more politically savvy when it comes to voting for the civilians who make the decisions as to when we are going to be put into harms way, then we will continue to die or be maimed needlessly.
Blogs like yours Michelle give us an opportunity to learn whose who behind the rhetoric. I have learned a great deal from both the articles you have posted and the comments from those who support their opinions with facts and links to back up those facts.
A changed republican.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:17 am
Zen Lill not all Seals vote the way the voice their opinion in the presence of their buddies. I often go along with by bigoted comrades when they are loudly proclaiming their hatred of democrats, but I vote a straight democratic ticket.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:19 am
Zen Lill, I know many military members who despise the republican party and everything they stand for.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:30 am
Zen Lill, I am in the Army Special Forces. Most of my buddies try to keep our political opinions to ourselves. Those of us who are more prone to vociferous proclamations of our political positions are usually advocating for the republican party.
I think they do it because for so long it has been assumed that most of the military is pro republican. That may have been true when there were no blogs or internet or facebook, etc.
Today it is easier for the members of the military to discover who is putting in danger and who is supporting us when we get out and need assistance.
Yes, it is still easier for the rhetoric of the candidates to fool members of the military. That’s because of the educational level of many who serve because that was the only job available.
Appealing to their basier instincts works well for the republican party because the truth is often sacrificed to get votes. But there are many of us who do THINK before we vote. Those of us who do and are not voting color, vote the democratic ticket.
Michelle, as many others here have done, I too thank you for giving many in the military an opportunity to see both sides of this issue.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:32 am
SocialButterfly, loved the link. Bet you’d make a sweet partner if you were gay.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:34 am
Zen Lill, I am in the military. I have two boys, 17 and 19. I would not like them to follow in my footsteps if Trump were elected POTUS.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:35 am
I will never buy a corporate chicken again.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:38 am
No more corporate meat for my family. I do the shopping for them, and I will not serve my family meat from animal who have not been humanely treated.
Thanks Michelle for this article. I was not aware of this disgusting treatment of animals that serve as our food source.
August 24th, 2016 at 7:41 am
Why does everything have to be so fucking crazy? Why can’t we be kind to the animals who we eat?
I have been reading this blob for 6 years. I remember when you had an Alien contingency that despised us because we were so cruel.
Damn they may have been on to something.
August 24th, 2016 at 8:06 am
17 Pena. I’m an equal opportunity lover! :-)
but in truth practically celebate for many years. Thanks for the kind words though.
/SB
August 25th, 2016 at 9:11 am
[…] Social Butterfly: I like him too. I saw a horrific docu about 10 years ago on the raising of factory chickens, and I was completely disgusted. I didn’t eat chicken for awhile. Any chicken. Now I purchase what I hope to be a chicken that is more humanely raised. […]