Undercover footage reveals Foster Farms’ catch crew throwing, kicking, and running over chickens with forklifts, and animals trapped in cage doors.

From June to July 2024, Animal Outlook’s investigator went undercover in California on a Foster Farms chicken catching crew that loads the animals into trucks for slaughter.  His video footage reveals widespread shocking cruelty:

• Multiple instances of forklifts driving over or hitting live birds, running over them instead of avoiding them. In some instances, forklifts ripped feathers off the birds exposing flesh, but left the birds alive and suffering. Some forklift drivers reversed back over chickens to crush them a second time after running over them. Forklift drivers also loaded cages onto the forklifts and drove them into live animals. Workers and supervisors left chickens to suffer instead of euthanizing them. Supervisors and workers stood by while this happened.
• Workers throwing birds instead of carrying them, kicking them, and grabbing them by their wings. In some instances, they threw birds into cages from long distances, causing chickens to bounce off the cages and fall onto the floor. They also kicked large tubes at chickens, or kicked birds instead of picking them up.
• Many instances of chickens trapped with their heads or wings stuck between cage door frames. One chicken was trapped by the head under a transport cage.
• Chickens living on muddy ground, in temperatures that reached up to 100 degrees, a pile of dead birds swarming with maggots, and other dirty and sickening conditions.

Foster Farms’ business style is focused on volume and profit over suffering and death. Workers handled many animals at once, often for 14-18 hour and overnight shifts, forcing as many birds into the trucks as possible with no regard for the lives of the animals. Even after a driver crashed a forklift into a building, Foster Farms did not address the harm that forklift operation can and did cause countless animals.

Call for Charges for Foster Farms' Cruelty to Animals

Animal Outlook has presented the video and legal analysis to the Fresno County District Attorney's office and is requesting criminal animal cruelty charges be filed against the perpetrators of this abuse, including Foster Farms as a corporation. We argue these harsh conditions and actions are system-wide: cruelty is a way of doing business for Foster Farms, not just for workers but for the supervisors and the corporation itself, and the law should be enforced accordingly. 

Foster Farms: A Track Record of Exploitation

Foster Farms claims all of its chicken farms are American Humane Certified^TM, which American Humane advertises as demonstrating “continued commitment to animal welfare and creating a safe, healthy, and enriching environment for its animals.” Foster Farms’ website claims that the chickens it raises enjoy the “five freedoms,” including “freedom from discomfort,” “freedom from injury, pain, and disease,” and “freedom from fear and distress.” Our investigation reveals a stark contrast, showing anything but humane care and freedom from discomfort, injury, and fear. 

According to its website, Foster Farms supplies major grocery outlets including Walmart, Kroger, Target, and Albertsons. It is the largest poultry processor in California. It reported $3 billion in revenue for 2023 — revenue that comes at the expense of  both animals and people, creating extreme conditions and suffering. Cruelty is not the exception in animal agriculture; it is the rule.

In 2015, an Animal Outlook investigation at a Foster Farms turkey hatchery revealed extreme processing speeds, resulting in baby birds being thrown, tossed, and jostled on machinery. The footage revealed painful mutilations, including chicks having their beaks and parts of their toes burned off without painkillers. Sick, injured, or weak birds were set aside and either dumped into a machine to be ground up alive or gassed to death in plastic bags. In 2022, Animal Equality filed a lawsuit against Foster Farms after their undercover investigation revealed baby chicks being crushed, drowned, and mutilated. The lawsuit sought to prohibit Foster Farms from continuing these practices and called for policies and procedures to protect baby chicks.

Also in 2022, the California Labor Commissioner cited three staffing agencies and joint employers Foster Farms, LLC and Foster Poultry Farms nearly $3.8 million after an investigation discovered a failure to inform 3,476 temporary employees of Covid-19 paid sick leave. In 2013, Foster Farms made national headlines when the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to shut down three Foster Farms facilities in California after an outbreak of Salmonella sickened nearly 300 people in 17 states.

Take a Stand Against Animal Abuse: Join the Movement for a Vegan Future

By eliminating animals from your plate and encouraging others to do the same, you take a stand against animal abuse. Please share and educate others to inspire and empower all of us to refuse to be a part of the systemic abuse to animals in the agriculture system by eating vegan. Start by taking our veg pledge today.

With your support, you can help us continue to expose the suffering animals endure in the animal agriculture industry. Please donate today to fund undercover investigations that reveal and confront animal abuse at places like Foster Farms and work to dismantle the cruel system of animal agriculture and build a vegan world.

This investigation was sponsored by animal-protection charity Legal Impact for Chickens.