VANCOUVER — The company responsible for catching chickens at farms in Chilliwack, B.C., says it has fired five employees after an animal rights group released video of alleged abuse.
Dwayne Dueck, president of Elite Services, says in a statement the company is taking "immediate corrective action" after being "sickened" by the footage it saw.
The SPCA in British Columbia has launched a formal investigation into what its investigator calls "brutal and sadistic" violence against chickens.
Lindsay Wolf, vice-president of investigations with the group Mercy For Animals, says the abuses were captured between May 10 and June 9 by volunteers working at more than a dozen factory farms in the Fraser Valley.
It wants grocery giant Loblaws to ensure the welfare of animals in its supply chain after the release of the video that allegedly shows multiple workers throwing, hitting, dismembering and killing the birds.
Loblaws says it has told its supplier, Ontario-based Sonfina Foods Inc., that it has "zero tolerance for any kind of animal abuse."
Sofina says it has reviewed the "horrifying footage" allegedly taken of the company it contracted to catch chickens at its facilities in British Columbia and it is "appalled and extremely shocked" by it.
B.C. SPCA spokeswoman Marcie Moriarty says the agency has launched a formal investigation after receiving undercover video that allegedly shows multiple workers throwing, hitting, dismembering and killing the birds, and forcing the animals into violent sexual acts with each other.
She says the workers were hired to round up chickens for transport to a slaughter plant in Port Coquitlam.
Moriarty says the footage was shot by a non-profit animal advocacy group between May 10 and June 9.
Investigators with the B.C. SPCA are now working on a report that will be forwarded to Crown counsel and Moriarty says they will be recommending multiple charges of animal cruelty under both the Criminal Code and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
She says if the individuals are convicted, they face a fine up to $75,000, a maximum five-year prison sentence and could be banned for life from owning or being around animals.
The people shown in the video need to be held accountable for their actions, Moriarty says.
"The video includes some of the most brutal and sadistic acts of violence against animals I have ever seen," she says. "It is extremely difficult to watch."
