Compassion Over Killing Investigations
COK’s powerful undercover investigations shine a bright light on cruelties kept hidden behind the closed doors of animal agribusiness. In addition to garnering international media coverage reaching millions of viewers, our video exposés have led to factory farm shutdowns, animal cruelty charges, groundbreaking lawsuits, and animal rescues. Please watch and share the footage below.
Central Valley Meat Co.
Date: August 2012
Facility: Central Valley Meat Co., a cow slaughterhouse
Location: Hanford, California
A COK investigator working inside Central Valley Meat Co. in June and July of 2012, documented inhumane treatment, improper slaughter methods, and intentional cruelty forced upon these animals in the last moments of their lives, including:
- Downed cows, unable to walk to the kill floor, shot in the head and workers often walking away while the animal continues to struggle and kick
- Some downed cows who were still alive after being shot in the head were then suffocated by workers who stood on their mouths and nostrils preventing the cows from breathing
- Cows being tortured – repeatedly hit, jabbed, electrically shocked, and sprayed with hot water – in a narrow chute leading to the kill floor.
Following our investigation, which received large-scale media coverage including features on ABC World News Tonight and by the Associated Press, the USDA temporarily shut down the slaughter plant. McDonald’s, In-N-Out and Costco also severed supply ties with the facility.
Watch our video and read more.
Hawkeye Sow Centers
Date: February 2012
Facility: Hawkeye Sow Centers, a pig breeding factory farm
Location: Leland, Iowa
A COK undercover investigator to documented the day-to-day miseries forced upon thousands of female pigs at this facility—who are intensively confined in tiny crates where they can’t even turn around—and their piglets, who endure painful mutilations without any relief. The video footage revealed:
- Poorly performed castrations that resulted in herniated intestines
- Workers pushing the herniated intestines back inside the piglets, then wrapping the area with tape
- Countless sick or injured piglets left to suffer without veterinary care, many of whom later died
- Sows languishing with uterine prolapses and later dying
- Forced cannibalism: intestines from dead piglets are pulled out and turned into “gruel” to feed back to pigs
- Layers of feces caked on the floor of crates and filthy, fly-infested conditions
Watch our video and read more.
Cal-Cruz Hatcheries Inc.
Date: 2009
Facility: Cal-Cruz Hatcheries, a chick and duckling hatchery
Location: Santa Cruz, California
COK’s investigator witnessed and painstakingly documented miserable conditions forced upon thousands of newly hatched birds at Cal-Cruz Hatcheries, including:
- A chick drowning in a bucket of liquid waste
- Birds entangled in machinery
- Sick or severely injured birds left to suffer for hours
- Unwanted hatchlings dumped down the egg shell disposal chute, then sprayed with a high-pressure hose
- Birds thrown five to six feet across the room into buckets where they often languished for hours
Following the COK investigation, the hatchery was permanently shut down, and 88 ducklings were taken from the hatchery. While several of these newly-hatched birds were too sick or injured to survive, more than two dozen were given a new chance at life at a nearby sanctuary.
In court, COK argued that the evidence documented in this undercover video of the hatchery constituted unlawful animal cruelty, in violation of the California Business and Professions Code, undermining the integrity of the market. The legal settlement reached marks the first time allegations of animal cruelty were successfully resolved using this civil law.
Watch our video and read more.
Michael Foods
Date: August 2009
Facility: Michael Foods, an egg factory farm
Location: Minnesota
At Michael Foods, a COK investigator documented horrific abuses including:
- Hens immobilized in the wires of their cages, unable to access food or water
- Decomposing and “mummified” corpses left in cages with live birds
- A Michael Foods employee decapitating a hen
Michael Foods supplies eggs to several national restaurant chains, including Dunkin’ Donuts. Compassion Over Killing has reached out to Dunkin Donuts numerous times to inquire about the treatment of hens in its supply chain and to encourage the company to make meaningful changes for by making vegan donuts.
Read more about this investigation and urge Dunkin Donuts to offer a vegan donut.
Hudson Valley Farms
Date: 2008
Facility: Hudson Valley Farms, a Foie Gras farm
Location: Ferndale, New York
During a white-gloved, guided tour, a COK investigator documented the sheer barbarity of the foie gras industry. What our investigator documented can only be described as a torture chamber for birds. The undercover footage shows:
- Pipes being shoved down ducks’ throats and food pumped into their stomachs
- Ducks grabbed by their wings, shackled upside down, and their throats slit
COK is currently involved in a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for allowing the sale of foie gras since it is a diseased poultry product.
ISE-America
Date: 2007
Facility: ISE-America, an egg factory farm
Location: New Jersey
The undercover footage at this facility shows:
- Birds overcrowded in cages
- Severely decomposing birds left in cages with live birds
- Ill birds denied individual veterinary care
- Hens stuck in between the wires of their cages, unable to access food and water
Eggs coming from this facility included a logo marking them as “Animal Care Certified.” Following the investigation, COK filed a lawsuit against the industry trade group United Egg Producers (UEP) and ISE America alleging violations of consumer protection laws based on the continued use of the misleading “Animal Care Certified” logo on egg cartons.
Goldsboro Milling Turkey Hatchery: A Butterball Supplier
Date: June – July 2006
Facility: Turkey hatchery that supplies Butterball
Location: North Carolina
From the moment chicks were hatched at this facility, they were submerged into a world of misery. Chicks at the hatchery were routinely:
- Dumped out of metal trays and jostled onto conveyor belts after being mechanically separated from cracked egg shells
- Newly-hatched turkeys were tossed around like inanimate objects
- Sorted, sexed, de-beaked, de-toed, and in some cases de-snooded before they are packed up and shipped off to a “grow out” confinement facility
View the video and learn more.
Esbenshade Farms
Date: November – December 2005
Facility: Esbenshade Farms, an egg factory farm
Location: Mount Joy, Pennsylvania
While undercover, our COK investigator found:
- Birds overcrowded in wire cages so small, they cannot spread their wings
- Hens left to suffer from untreated illnesses or injuries,
- Birds with their wings, legs, or feet entangled in the wires of cages, unable to access food or water
- Injured or dying birds removed from their cages and left in the aisles without access to food or water,
- Birds impaled on the wires of the cages with many already dead
This investigation resulted in 70 counts of animal cruelty being filed against the owner and manager, and it is the first case ever in which criminal charges for cruelty to animals were filed for the day-to-day operations at a factory farm.
View the video and learn more.
Interstate Transport Investigation
Date: July 2005
COK investigators traveled throughout the United States to document the conditions endured by farmed animals shipped across the country on trucks and trailers. The investigators found:
- Farmed animals overcrowded onto vehicles and moved long distances
- Transport often exceeded 28 hours without food, water, rest or adequate protection from elements
- An untold number suffer in-transit injuries, illnesses, stress and even death
Following the investigation, COK filed a petition with the USDA challenging the Twenty-Eight Hour Law of 1873, which stated animals could not be transported via “rail carrier, express carrier or common carrier” for longer than 28 consecutive hours without being unloaded for five hours for “feeding, water, and rest.” After reviewing the petition, the USDA announced that it will begin protecting farmed animals transported long distances by trucks.
View the video and learn more.
Maryland Egg Farms: Red Bird, ISE, County Fair
Date: February 2005
Facility: Redbird Egg Farm, ISE-America, County Fair Farms
Location: Maryland
COK investigators went into three Maryland egg farms to document the unthinkable cruelties egg-laying hens endure. In the farms, investigators found:
- Tens of thousands of hens crammed into tiny wire cages
- Hens denied veterinary care and left to suffer from illness and disease
- Deceased hens left in the cages, their bodies decomposing around live hens
View the video and learn more.
Perdue Farms
Date: September – October 2004
Facility: Perdue Farms, a slaughter plant
Location: Showell, Maryland
Using a hidden camera, our COK investigator documented horrible—yet routine—cruelty to animals on a daily basis, including:
- Workers violently throwing birds around the slaughter plant’s hanging room
- Birds—many who were dying—left unattended on the conveyor belt during workers’ lunch breaks
- Dead and dying birds on the grounds outside of the plant
- Birds flapping violently after having their throats slit
View the video and learn more.
Red Bird Egg Farm
Date: May 2004
Facility: Red Bird Egg Farm
Location: Millington, Maryland
At this “Animal Care Certified” facility, COK undercover investigators documented:
- Extreme confinement: cages stacked upon cages
- Vast manure pits under the cages containing escaped birds
- Piles of dead birds
- Several birds were rescued by COK from this farm
ISE-America
Date: May 2003
Facility: ISE-America, an egg factory farm
Location: Cecilton, Maryland
COK investigators documented egregious abuse:
- Hens stacked 5 tiers high with several hens stuffed into each battery cage
- Hens suffering from severe feather-loss and often living in the feces of those caged above
- Birds needing veterinary care left to suffer with injuries and infections
Disaster at ISE-America
Date: February 2003
Facility: ISE-America, an egg factory farm
Location: Cecilton, Maryland
Heavy snowstorms plagued the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan area in February 2003, and tens of thousands of egg-laying hens at ISE-America fell victim as the roofs of some sheds at the ISE mega-egg farm in rural Cecilton, Maryland had collapsed due to the snowfall, and hens were trapped inside battery cages, some crushed, others mangled, both housing live and decomposing hens.
Many of the highest cages in the four-tiered sheds were flattened, hens crushed beneath metal sheeting and plywood. Other wire battery cages were smashed, and still live hens were found amidst badly rotting corpses.
Broiler Farm Investigation
Date: 2003
COK investigators found:
- Farms riddled with such filth, ammonia fumes, and other serious air pollution that breathing can be painful and difficult
- A painful slaughter procedure in which the birds are hung upside down, electrocuted into paralysis, and have their throats slit open
- Birds living in their own waste where they cannot escape the high levels of ammonia and bacteria
- Bodies often scalded by ammonia, and many suffering from respiratory infections
Red Bird Egg Farms
Date: August – November 2002
Facility: Red Bird Egg Farms
Location: Millington, Maryland
COK investigators found:
- Hens in battery cages that never touch the earth and live suspended over unsanitary manure pits
- Unhealthy cysts on many birds
- Overgrown nails, making walking and standing difficult
- Deceased hens discarded like trash
County Fair Farms
Date: April and May 2002
Facility: County Fair Farms, an egg farm
Location: Westminster, Md.
Using video and still cameras, the investigators documented numerous cases of neglect and animal cruelty including:
- Countless dead hens in cages with live hens
- Hens stuck in the wires of their cages, dying from dehydration
- Hens with serious infections, growths, prolapsed rectums and other health problems
- Hens suffering massive feather-loss
The COK investigators at County Fair Farms openly rescued ten hens from the facility who were in desperate need of immediate veterinary care.
Livestock Auctions
Date: October – December 2001
Location: Maryland
COK conducted an investigation throughout the state of Maryland, documenting the conditions for animals at three livestock auctions: Westminster Livestock Auction, Four State’s Livestock Sales, and Frederick Livestock Auction, all of which are owned by B&J Auctions.
Violence and intimidation toward animals are the norm at livestock auctions.
View the video and learn more.
ISE-America
Date: May 2001
Facility: ISE-America, an egg factory farm
Location: Cecilton, Maryland
COK activists rescued eight hens from ISE-America who were in dire need of veterinary attention. These hens now live in safe homes where they can feel sun on their backs, scratch the earth with their feet, and fulfill their needs and desires, free from the horror of their previous existence. They will never again be abused by the egg industry.
While several of these newly-hatched birds were too sick or injured to survive, more than two dozen were given a new chance at life at a nearby sanctuary.