Undercover investigation of Publix egg supplier reveals 'animal abuse and food safety threats'

By Jessica Edmondson on Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 9:30 am

Publix Supermarkets have more than 1,000 stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, and the company is seeking to expand their areas. But the main issue at hand is their largest egg supplier: Cal-Maine. The community-centered company, by buying eggs from Cal-Maine, is helping to support hideous living conditions of caged chickens. The Humane Society aims to encourage companies, like Publix, to seek cage-free suppliers in order to lower the risk of salmonella eggs and to increase better treatment of animals.

According to the President and CEO of The HSUS, Wayne Pacelle:

“Our latest farm animal investigation documents inhumane treatment of laying hens and conditions that threaten food safety," stated Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "Time and again, we've found that these massive facilities caging hundreds of thousands of animals do not properly care for the birds or safeguard our food supply. It's time for the egg industry to embrace cage-free housing systems and move away from battery cage confinement methods.”

When considering companies like Cal-Maine who use caged and cramp tactics on their chickens, and are supported by Publix, he had to say the following:

“Based on these findings and the inherent cruelty of confining birds so tightly they can’t even extend their wings, we hope Publix will establish a policy to only sell cage-free eggs.”

For the complete report on the investigation, click here. To watch an extended video of the miserable conditions and a slide show, click here.

All information was provided by the HSUS media report and at the above links.

[
      {
        "name": "Ad - NativeInline - Injected",
        "component": "12461396",
        "insertPoint": "3",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "5"
      },{
        "name": "Real 1 Player (r2) - Inline",
        "component": "12436357",
        "insertPoint": "2/3",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "9"
      }
    ]

According to a recent press release, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has reportedly witnessed rampant abuse of caged chickens and food safety issues after a recent undercover investigation of Publix Supermarkets' main egg supplier, Cal-Maine Foods. Cal-Maine is the nation’s top egg producer and coincidentally, is also implicated in the latest major egg recall. What The Humane Society has found in the factory farm supplying Publix eggs (owned by Cal-Maine) is overcrowded cages with live hens housed with dead ones. In some instances, the carcasses were mashed onto the bottom wire of cages where the remaining birds step and excrement on.

The HSUS investigator worked inside a Cal-Maine factory for 28 days in Waelder, Texas, and documented multiple abuses and food safety threats. As already listed, some of the reports were of countless dead birds in cramped cages, trapped in wires, and unable to reach food or water. Besides the numerous injuries of the animals themselves, some of their eggs were covered in blood and excrement, supporting evidence of salmonella compromised eggs produced by the company.