A year after Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed a bill that would have discouraged undercover citizen investigation of animal abuse, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Mercy for Animals says it has secretly documented abuse at a Chattanooga chicken processing plant.
The group released a video online Wednesday that it says was taken at a Koch (KUK’) Foods slaughterhouse. The video show chickens that survive the slaughter process and then are scalded alive. A call to Park Ridge, Illinois-based Koch Foods was not immediately returned.
Mercy for Animals Director of Investigations Matt Rice said the practices are not illegal because chickens are not covered by federal animal slaughter rules. However, the group called on chicken processors and the restaurants and other retail businesses that buy from them to adopt more humane slaughter practices.
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