Cruelty and Abuse in Perdue Farms Poultry Products

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

Berkeley, Jan.18) - Trader Joe's marketing is said to be aimed at people who have lots of education but little money. Be that as it may, on Sunday, animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere helped out on the education side by letting shoppers at a Berkeley Trader Joe's market know how the company was selling horribly abused and inhumanely slaughtered Perdue poultry.

The information is based on undercover investigations at the slaughterhouses of a half dozen of Petaluma’s supplier farms, whistleblower reports, firsthand observations, and hidden camera footage, along with findings from veterinary medicine experts and infectious disease specialists.

Perdue stands accused of routinely violating animal cruelty laws. The company is also accused of exposing the public to major health risks through its brutal and negligent treatment of birds marketed as “free range” and “organic.”

Animals that are cheerily packaged and called "organic" and "free range" and sold in grocery stores nationwide under the personalizing brand names “Rocky” and “Rosie” are animals that were tortured and sick and where workers labored in dangerous conditions.

Petaluma Poultry, owned by Perdue, has been shown to harbor "rampant abuse and disease" and have subjected animals to tremendous cruelty, including chickens being scalded alive and left to die slowly.

Activists from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) assembled a couple of blocks away and then descended on the Trader Joe's store at University and MLK Avenue. A large banner displaying "Drop Perdue's Petaluma Poultry" was set up on the sidewalk. Entering the store and pulling out from their shirts signs reading "drop Perdue's Poultry"," Drop Petaluma Poultry" and "Perdue Abuse.com", activists held a rally in the store's packaged meat section. Speakers described the horrors of Petaluma Poultry's operations and called out the lies of Trader Joe's marketing. "Don't believe Trader Joe's Lies" they shouted.

After about an hour, the protesters reassembled on the adjoining sidewalk and delivered additional speeches.

The event proceeded peacefully with Trader Joe's employees vigilantly observing helplessly. It was correctly estimated to be most uncool to ask the police to evict the activists in the heart of Berkeley.

Perdue "farms" is no stranger to problems over unethical behavior, having recently been fined $4 million for violating child labor laws.

See all high resolution photos here.