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For immediate release:
April 7, 2021
Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382
Fort Smith, Ark. – After receiving USDA documents showing that the chickens, likely in the thousands, were kept in trucks without food or water for 37 hours at OK Foods’ Fort Smith abattoir, and that an employee there threw chickens into a cage – PETA sent a letter to Oklahoma District 16th District Attorney Jeff Smith this morning asking him to prosecute and charge under state animal cruelty law.
“If these workers stuffed dogs into trucks and denied them food and water for a day and a half, they would be charged with abuse,” says PETA senior vice president Daphne Nakhminovich. “Chickens are hungry, thirsty and distressed like all animals, and they are protected by the same state law, so PETA is demanding a criminal investigation from them.”
PETA, whose motto is in part that “the animals are not ours to eat” – opposes arrogance, a worldview focused on human superiority. For more information please visit PETA.org or subscribe to the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram…
This is followed by a letter from PETA to Smith.
April 7, 2021
The Honorable Jeff Smith
District attorney
District 16
Dear Mr. Smith:
We are asking your office (and local law enforcement if you deem appropriate) to investigate and bring appropriate criminal charges against OK Foods, Inc. and the workers responsible for leaving many chickens without food or water for about 37 hours – and for throwing other birds in a cage – at a slaughterhouse located at 200 Industrial Rd. in Heavener. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has documented the incidents in the attached reports, which PETA has just received upon request from open sources.
Chickens from a Waldron, Arkansas farm arrived at the slaughterhouse on January 15, 2020, when slaughter operations were postponed due to a water problem at the facility, according to the first report. Rather than returning them to the farm, OK Foods employees allegedly left the animals – probably several thousand – on at least two trucks on their property before slaughtering on January 17. Over the past 37 hours, the chickens have been deprived of food and food. water. It is not known if any birds died as a result, and if so, how many.
On March 30, 2020, a federal agent said he saw an OK Foods worker throw approximately four live chickens into the cage with a wave of his hand. A federal agent wrote that an OK Foods inspector stood 6-8 feet away, but took no action to stop the worker from dumping the animals.
This behavior can break Okl 21. St. Ann. § 21-1685. While Oklahoma Anti-Violence Law does not exempt industry practices from prosecution, documented behavior violates poultry standards and therefore will not be immune from prosecution if such an exemption does exist. Please note that FSIS action does not invalidate state criminal liability for slaughterhouses or their employees who commit acts of cruelty to animals.
Please let us know how we can help you. Thank you for your attention and for the hard work you are doing.
Sincerely,
Daniel Paden
Vice President of Evidence Analysis
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