Valley poultry giant Foster Farms accused of mistreating its birds, lawsuit says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Legal Impact for Chickens sued Foster Farms in Fresno County seeking declaratory relief.
- The complaint cites corporation code sections 10404 and 14501 authorizing SPCAs to sue.
- An Animal Outlook probe alleged unsanitary conditions and 96 abuse incidents.
A Sacramento-based animal welfare group is suing Foster Farms, one the state’s largest poultry producers, claiming it is violating California animal cruelty laws.
Legal Impact for Chickens filed its complaint in May in Fresno County Superior Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the company and its poultry ranches in Fresno, Merced and Stanislaus counties.
Allegations include dead and rotting birds strewn throughout barns, chickens being routinely crushed or trapped by equipment, and dozens of incidents of employees throwing, dropping or hitting chickens.
Legal Impact for Chickens is using a section of the state’s corporation code that outlines the legal requirements for California nonprofit corporations and the authority it has under state law.
The organization argues that it is incorporated as a state society for the prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCA) and a 501(c)(3) animal-welfare charity. As such, the corporation’s code sections 10404 and 14501 authorize it to seek relief to prevent cruelty to animals and “enforce provisions of laws of this state for the prevention of cruelty to animals,” according to the complaint.
Foster Farms officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Drew Givens, an attorney for Legal Impact For Chickens, said that while the commercial code sections have been on the books for years, they are now being applied to large-scale animal operations, not just cats and dogs.
“This could be precedent setting,” Givens said.
The legal move already has been tested in Solano County against a dog-breeding business that was challenged by a local nonprofit animal welfare organization. The group sued the dog breeder alleging violations of state and local animal welfare laws, including keeping more than the permitted number of dogs, failing to provide adequate care, and maintaining unsanitary conditions.
The Superior Court of Solano County ruled in favor of the nonprofit animal welfare group and the California Court of Appeal upheld the case.
Givens said the case is significant because it affirmed that SPCAs, like Legal Impact for Chickens, can directly sue operators for violating state and local animal welfare ordinances.
In Foster Farms’ case, the organization is relying on an investigation by Animal Outlook, a nonprofit animal protection group, that secretly documented alleged acts of animal cruelty at the poultry producer’s grow-out ranches in Fresno, Merced and Stanislaus counties.
“The investigation revealed cruel and unsanitary living conditions throughout the grow-out facilities where Foster Farms houses chickens, including dead birds strewn throughout the barns, with survivors living among and even on top of piles of rotting and maggot-infested corpses,” according to the complaint.
The complaint also alleges that chickens were routinely crushed or trapped by Foster Farms’ equipment. During the monthlong investigation by Animal Outlook, it documented 96 incidents when Foster Farms employees threw, dropped, hit or punched chickens.
Givens denies that his organization’s ultimate goal is to shut down all meat processors in California. “We just want corporations to follow the law,” he said. “We are not trying to force them out of business. We want them to follow the law, and that means treating animals humanely.”
The case is scheduled for a case management hearing on Oct. 6 in Department 97E.
