CNN Report on Factory Farms and Ag-Gag Wins National Press Club Award!

Last June, CNN aired a hard-hitting in-depth report on the importance of undercover videos and the dangers of ag-gag laws. The story, by investigative correspondent Chris Frates, featured COK’s heart-breaking investigation inside a North Carolina chicken factory farm exposing shocking cruelty that includes sick and injured birds being dumped in outdoor pits and buried alive.

Shortly after this CNN report reached millions of viewers nationwide, Pilgrim’s issued a statement noting that the “video shows startling images of birds being mistreated” and calling those acts “unacceptable.” Local law enforcement, however, decided “not to bring criminal charges in this case.”

The miseries forced upon farmed animals are typically kept hidden from public view, and CNN’s feature takes aim at the lack of transparency in this system, highlighting the dangers of ag-gag bills that seek to shut down undercover investigations and keep Americans in the dark about what really happens behind the meat industry’s closed doors.

It was just announced that this powerful reporting prompted the National Press Club to name CNN’s Chris Frates the winner of the prestigious Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award for 2014!

Read more about COK’s investigation and watch CNN’s report exposing the horrors forced upon chickens. You can also send a note to our brave investigators to thank them for their painstaking work to expose the truth.