Shocking video shows animals kicked, thrown, ripped apart by workers at Lilydale chicken supplier farms

Mercy For Animals Calls for Prosecution of Abusers and for Grocer Loblaw to Adopt Meaningful Animal Welfare Policy to Prevent Egregious Cruelty in Company Supply Chain

TORONTO, June 13, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Disturbing undercover video footage of gruesome animal abuse at more than a dozen Lilydale chicken supplier farms was released this morning at ChickenTorture.ca. The video shows workers punting and throwing birds, slamming them hard against walls and transport crates, ripping the legs off conscious animals, and more. In particularly horrific incidents, a worker is seen trying to rip a bird in half with his bare hands, and other workers torment frightened animals in sexually explicit ways.

Mercy For Animals is demanding prosecution of the workers, managers and companies responsible for this sadistic animal abuse and is calling on Galen Weston, president of Loblaw—which sells chicken from Lilydale—to take immediate action by adopting meaningful animal welfare policies to prohibit the extreme animal abuse documented in the video.

Mercy For Animals will host a tele-press conference at 10 a.m. EST at 1-800-769-9015 Please call in by 9:50 a.m. 

The undercover video was shot by a whistleblower at more than a dozen chicken factory farms in British Columbia that supply a Lilydale slaughterhouse in Port Coquitlam. This slaughterhouse supplies chicken to Loblaw-owned grocery stores. Lilydale is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sofina Foods, which is based in Markham, Ontario.

The graphic footage shows the following:

• Workers hitting, kicking, and throwing birds and smashing them into walls and transport crates
• Birds crushed by transport machinery and having their legs ripped off by careless workers
• Management standing by while workers torment animals with crude sex acts and rough handling
• Severely sick and injured birds bred to grow too large to walk without pain left to languish and die

This latest video comes on the heels of another video exposé by Mercy For Animals in October showing turkeys at a Lilydale slaughterhouse violently slammed upside down into metal shackles, cut open while still conscious and able to feel pain, and often scalded alive in hot-water defeathering tanks.

In addition to seeking swift action from law enforcement, Mercy For Animals is calling on Galen Weston, president of Loblaw to use its buying power as a major Lilydale chicken customer to implement animal welfare policies aimed at ending the worst forms of animal abuse in its supply chain. Specifically, the group is urging Loblaw to require third-party audits, live-stream video surveillance, and a zero tolerance policy for animal abuse at its supplier farms to deter egregious acts of worker violence. Mercy For Animals is also asking the company to improve genetic selection and monitoring systems for poultry in its supply chain to prevent lameness and other serious health issues and to end live-shackle slaughter in favor of less cruel systems that eliminate the horrific suffering caused by shackling, shocking, and slitting the throats of conscious animals. 

"This video shows some of the most sickening animal abuse we've ever seen, including workers sadistically tearing live animals limb from limb," said Krista Hiddema, vice president with Mercy For Animals in Canada. "It's clear that Lilydale is incapable of preventing even the most twisted forms of sadistic cruelty at its supplier farms. Loblaw must act now to implement a meaningful animal welfare policy to ensure chickens sold in its grocery stores are not tortured to death."

To view the hidden-camera video, please visit ChickenTorture.ca.

SOURCE Mercy For Animals

Krista Hiddema: 416-666-3093