Tyson ends contract over maltreatment

Firm reacts to video taken at farm

Tyson Foods has ended its contract with a poultry farm in Tennessee after an animal-welfare group documented conditions at the farm using a hidden camera.

"Animal well-being is a priority at our company and we will not tolerate the unacceptable animal treatment shown in this video," said Tyson spokesman Worth Sparkman in a statement. "We're especially concerned about the inappropriate methods used to euthanize sick and injured chickens."

Sparkman said there are currently no chickens on the farm.

"We're committed to animal well-being but don't believe this video accurately depicts the treatment of chickens by the thousands of farmers who supply us," he said in the statement.

The footage was filmed at T&S Farms in Dukedom, Tenn., according a statement by Mercy for Animals, the group that released the video.

The images show "farm owners stepping on the heads of live chickens and then pulling their wings or bodies to break their necks, chickens bred to grow so fast they became crippled under their own weight and frequently died from organ failure, hundreds of thousands of birds crammed into filthy, windowless sheds forced to live for weeks in their own waste."

Mercy for Animals mentioned global fast-food chain McDonald's in the video, and called on the company to "adopt meaningful animal welfare policies to end many of the worst forms of animal abuse and neglect in its supply chain."

"We believe treating animals with care and respect is an integral part of a responsible supply chain and find the behavior depicted in this video to be completely unacceptable," a McDonald's statement said. "We support Tyson Foods' decision to terminate their contract with this farmer. We're working with Tyson Foods to further investigate this situation and reinforce our expectations around animal health and welfare at the farm level."

Business on 08/28/2015

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