Is "Humane Certified" Really Humane?

Foster Farms is the most
recent accused for chicken
abuse by the Chicken Mafia

The public is getting more and more enraged by clear violations of humane treatment and reasonable animal welfare for farm animals, including chickens. This time it was Foster Farms, a member of the US Chicken Mafia.  The Chicken Mafia can and should be preventing these incidents from occurring, then promptly responding to these incidents when their prevention efforts were insufficient.  Instead, the Chicken Mafia, whether in the US or Canada, prefer to delay, deny, distract, defend, destroy, deride, and deflect; rather than make the necessary changes to their dysfunctional systems.

Mercy for Animals enlisted Bob Barker, the former "Price Is Right" host, TV personality, and animal rights advocate for more than 30 years, to host and narrate this shocking video.



If the above video is reliable evidence, something in this commercial chicken system is broken, and needs to be fixed.

The above video is alleged to have been shot in California USA, at Foster Farms poultry slaughterhouse in Fresno, and their three poultry farms in Fresno County.  Once the undercover video was published, Foster Farms suspended 5 employees, and are doing re-training for the other employees in the areas investigated. The allegations received an immediate knee jerk reaction by the management of Foster Farms, blaming their employees.  Foster Farms response to the video is here.

Foster Farms says that every employee has animal welfare training every year.  If that's true, how do we explain the actions shown in the video?  Does management give mere lip service in this training (ie. rolling their eyes, cracking jokes, turning it into a farce)?  On the other hand, is every employee required to do a comprehensive comprehension test at the end of the training, to prove that they were paying attention, and fully understood?  Using dummy chickens, can each employee demonstrate what they understand to be acceptable animal treatment at their work station, and what is unacceptable (and might lead to them being fired)?

In spite of Foster Farms putting 100% of the blame onto the employees in their press release, does the management of Foster Farms have any blood on their hands?

I have posted previously that all management, whether on chicken farms or aerospace manufacturing, have the following duties owed to each and every one of their employees:

Duties that Managers Owe to All Employees

1. Ensure each employee knows exactly what is expected from them;
2. Provide each employee with all the necessary resources to readily achieve what is expected (eg. money, training, equipment, data, feedback, recognition, dignity, respect, supervision, tools, etc.).
3. Ensure each employee can (and does) measure and understand the difference between what is expected and what actually occurred.
4. Ensure that all employees take prompt corrective action to close the gap(s) between what is expected & what actually occurred.
5. Ensure that risks and non-conformances are promptly identified, and actions are taken to prevent their occurrence (or re-occurrence).

To run an organization without these 5 managerial duties, is to abdicate management's responsibilities.  For example, if the driver of a vehicle suddenly decided to close their eyes and let go of the steering wheel of their moving vehicle while driving on a busy street, should society hold that driver responsible for the subsequent carnage?  Without these 5 duties, the management has similarly let go of the corporate steering wheel and closed their eyes, and subjected all those nearby to the gruesome consequences.

Did the management of Foster Farms do any of those 5 steps?  If they didn't do all 5 steps in a comprehensive and effective manner, then the blame for the animal abuse sits on the shoulders of both Foster's management and the employees who actually did the abuse.

One news report on this scandal raised the issue of the poor working conditions suffered by the employees working at Foster Farms.  If the employees feel abused in their jobs at the hands of Foster management, some employees may lash out at the animals they are forced to process at break neck speeds.  As a hands-on employee on the chicken processing line, how do you keep your empathy and sanity in spite of the thousands of animals you send to their death every day, and avoid becoming desensitized to the animals' welfare?

In the video, Bob Barker (and/or Mercy of Animals) also blame the American Humane Association ("AHA") for enabling this abuse by falsely certifying Foster Farms and their chicken processes as "humane".

The Chicken Mafia is rich.  Foster Farms is one of the biggest chicken producers in the US, with 10,000-employees, operations in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas and Alabama, a comprehensive line of products that's sold globally, with over 100 producers on more than 7,000 farms. Foster Farms says they employ two full-time avian veterinarians and a poultry nutritionist.  Where were these professionals when these abuses were ongoing? Did these professionals know about, suspect, or turned a blind eye to this abuse? I believe any corporation that big should have known better, and taken better care to prevent these issues from occurring.

The American Humane Association ("AHA") has an ongoing need for $12.8 million per year in funding their charity.  Can the Chicken Mafia purchase and use the good name of AHA Certified Humane as a smoke screen?  AHA says:

"Since 1877 the historic American Humane Association has been at the forefront of every major advance in protecting children, pets and farm animals from abuse and neglect."

AHA doesn't own nor operate any animal welfare shelters.  AHA has drafted a document of best practices and minimal accepted standards to which about 300 animal shelters have voluntarily endorsed, follow, and pay AHA to audit their compliance.  AHA also has the exclusive contract to ensure that animals are well treated in all Hollywood movies and similar artistic productions.

There are others who also certify animal welfare excellence.  For example, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), this label has the most stringent guidelines. It is only issued to meat that comes from independent family farms.

Humane Farm Animal Care has Certified Humane, which USA Today called the "Gold Standard" for animal welfare.

According to Charity Navigation, AHA has recently suffered a 16.3% drop in funding to its charitable programs for animal welfare.

PetSmart Charities (a recent spin off of the US for-profit pet store chain that has a similar purpose to AHA) has a 22.9% better charity effectiveness score that AHA, and a $51 Million per year budget; almost 4 times bigger than AHA.  Obviously, older isn't necessarily better.

Does this loss of market share and exclusivity explain why AHA supported Foster Farms and the Chicken Mafia in their time of need, so as to obtain some quick cash for the AHA?

To become AHA certified for animal welfare, AHA requires an application, payment of a fee to AHA, an on-site audit by a certified ISO auditor who also has animal species-specific expertise, a review and approval of the audit results, employee training, and annual re-certification.  Sounds pretty good to me.  But is it effective, or a smoke screen?

The AHA standard for broiler chickens is 136 pages in length.  I haven't read the entire document, but I skimmed through it, as well as fully read and analyzed a few key sections.  There are a few typos, a few unclear sentences here and there, but for the most part, it seems to be a good standard to help ensure animal welfare.

Red Rover says that AHA's certification system is not as thorough as the other two major animal welfare certification bodies.  Is that why Foster Farms chose AHA's system?  Perhaps Foster Farms couldn't be bothered, or couldn't achieve compliance to the higher standards?

Whatever the answer, it seems to me that if a farm or chicken processing plant was fully compliant to the spirit and letter of AHA's standard, most people would find it acceptable.  The Mercy for Animals video shown above is clearly in violation of all three standards for animal welfare.

Therefore we are left to question the AHA auditors that were sent to Foster Farms, the auditing process, and compliance by Foster Farms' employees to the defined animal welfare standard.

During AHA's audits, do the auditors seek objective evidence that Foster Farms' management has consistently and effectively implemented all 5 steps listed above?

Paper documents, by themselves, don't keep animals safe and well cared for.  Many ISO-based quality management systems are bureaucratic, bloated, and ineffective; in spite of gold stars on their audit reports.  I know, as I spent 27 years as a certified ISO auditor.

Management must be engaged, and vigilant to ensure they build a culture that believes, supports, and practices the applicable standards every hour of every day.  Does Foster meet that criteria?  If they did, they would have been aware (or suspected) the potential for abuse portrayed in the video, and stopped it from occurring (or re-occurring) long before the Mercy for Animals undercover operative arrived with their video camera.

It takes time, skill, and significant effort to do a comprehensive audit, looking for evidence of what occurs when the auditor is there, as well as what happens between audits.  Are the auditors given sufficient time?  Are auditors encouraged and supported to dig deep and have the confidence to report fully and honestly, in spite of cajoling and attempts at manipulation of audit results by the employees and management?

Are verification and validation audits done by outside auditors (separate from both the company being audited, and AHA as well)?  This could be used to see if AHA auditors are doing full and comprehensive audits with consistent and repeatable results.

Hopefully, in time, we we learn the full details, and will be reassured how both Foster and the AHA certification process will both be improved.

Could we expect the same or similar results if Mercy for Animals did more undercover work in a factory farm and/or processing plant inside Canada?  Unfortunately, based on my research on the Chicken Mafia in Canada, I'm sad to say it's likely as bad or worse in Canada as what Foster Farms got caught doing in the USA.

What are the opinions of CFC, CFO, and all the other provincial Chicken Boards about the incidents described in the video?  It is a long standing legal precedent that silence should be interpreted as acceptance.  Who will ask each and every one of these Canadian Chicken Boards, as well as the provincial and Federal supervising commissions what they have done (or will start doing) so that similar animal abuse in Canada's system will be prevented, and/or detected and remedial actions taken to prevent re-occurrence?

Today, I sent a link to this posting for both Foster Farms and the AHA, requesting their comments.  If I receive anything (which I doubt), I will post it so the world can clearly know their positions on the issues raised in this Blog posting.

Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada ("SFPFC")  has clearly defined its expectations for animal welfare.  See Clauses 2 and 3 of SFPFC's Principles.  Why hasn't the Chicken Mafia been able to do similarly?

Unfortunately, the Chicken Mafia gives all chicken farmers and chicken processors a bad name, even Small Flockers.

Chicken Choices for Maple Lodge Farms

The Chicken Mafia has a few choices:  A) continue to deny, delay, stonewall, and resist; or    B) Admit it has serious problems in its defined processes, and poor compliance to those defined processes; then fix all those problems; or   C) Allow others (ie. Small Flockers) who don't have those dysfunctions to serve consumers who want humane chicken.

Here is the undercover video allegedly shot at Maple Lodge Farms' Ontario slaughter plant, then reported by Mercy For Animals.



For more, including a MFA petition see http://www.maplelodgeharms.ca/

CTV's W5 provides some excellent video and followup investigations.

From January to June 2011, Maple Lodge accrued 26 Administrative Monetary Penalties ("AMPs") and paid $120,600 in fines, according to CFIA data. Between April and June, the company chalked up another  22 violations, the most AMPs in Canada.  Rather than continue with even more AMPs, CFIA laid charges against Maple Lodge Foods.

On Sept. 27, 2013, Maple Lodge Farms was convicted on 20 separate charges for failing to provide adequate animal welfare under Health of Animals Act.  They received a suspended sentence for 3 years (expires Sept. 27, 2016) on 18 of the charges they were convicted of.  On the two charges they were sentenced on, they were fined $80,000 cash and must spend $1 Million over the three year probation period to improve their bird transportation and processing plant system.  See Appendix "A" of the Mar. 27, 2014 Court Order  Since then, there have been 20 incidents of high chicken DOA (Dead On Arrival) during the 2014 period of  probation, indicating Maple Lodge Farms still hasn't solved their issues.

In their defense, Maple Lodge Farms says:

"We also participate in third-party audits of our facilities. On our most recent audit, conducted in August 2014 by Silliker, a global leader in food safety and quality solutions, Maple Lodge Farms achieved a 99.1 per cent score on transportation and 100 per cent on the holding and handling portions of the audit."

I note a difference between food safety and animal welfare.  Perhaps that is one source of the problem, Maple Lodge Farms can't comprehend the difference.  Silliker may have expertise in HACCP, but seem to have less experience in animal welfare.  If Maple Lodge scored 99.1% and 100% on their audits, perhaps they need a new auditor, and I shudder to think of those processors who barely pass the audits. 
Maple Lodge Farms is the largest chicken processor in Canada, exports chicken to 30 foreign countries, and is a prior winner of "50 Best Managed Companies in Canada" award.  Obviously, they knew better than this.  They had the sophistication and resources to do better than this.

How do we explain their alleged cruelty to dozens, if not thousands, of chickens?

On Maple Lodge Farm's Facebook page a posting at Mar. 29, 2015 8:29 AM by a Maple Lodge spokesperson blames the undercover videographer for continued abuse of the chickens because the videographer did not use the anonymous phone tip line to report known or suspected animal abuse by other employees.

Obviously, any of the hundreds of employees at Maple Lodge Farms could have picked up the phone, but none did.  Does this indicate that the abuse is a chronic accepted fact at Maple Lodge?  How else do we explain this?  It appears that this company, or at least this slaughter plant, is a toxic work environment needing a big shakeup.

What about the thousands of good, hard working employees at Maple Lodge Farms who were not involved in the abuse, and are just as appalled as the rest of Canada?  How do these previously proud employees explain to their family, friends, and neighbours about the Mark of Cain that Maple Lodge has tattooed upon them through no fault of these employees?

So what does the President of Maple Lodge Farms have to say about all this?  Here he is, fresh off YouTube, re-invented by their crisis media consultant with their soothing tones and politically correct phrases.  Give it a good, hard listen.




The word cloud from his speech looks pretty good.  Obviously professionally written.  You bought yourself the best speech money can buy.

Word Cloud from Speech by Michael Burrows, President of Maple Lodge Farms
about animal abuse inside their slaughter plant in Brampton ON

 Maple Lodge Farms has also issued a press release.

I have done a detailed analysis and recommendations, and a commentary from the vantage point of small flock chicken farmers, thinking about the steaming pile of chicken manure Mr. Burrows has thrown his company into.  My analysis of his amateurish attempt at a reassuring, yet shallow and unbelievable speech was done sentence by sentence.  It also provides a full, corrected transcript of his speech, as You Tube's version is a little garbled.  I hope it helps Maple Lodge quickly get onto the proper path, and mend their evil ways.

Note at the end where the Ontario Don of the Chicken Mafia clinches for his closeup, and says:

"If you feel we are falling short of these expectations, I invite you to let me know via the "Contact Us" page of our website."

Michael Burrows CEO of Maple Lodge Farms

Well Mr. Burrows, I think both you and Maple Leaf Farms fall very short of the mark.

Hear me loud and clear, you have fallen short of my expectations.

Mercy for Animals Canada, at the end of their shocking documentary on Maple Lodge Farms’ dysfunctional chicken operations (Timestamp 3:10), said:

“Remember, you can withdraw your support from this cruel industry by leaving chickens off your dinner plate".

Mercy for Animals Canada

You, Mr. Burrows and your company Maple Lodge Farms have damaged the reputation of the entire chicken industry, both within Canada and internationally.  Perhaps you have damaged Canada itself, and its citizens.  A weak economy, and we ge even more damage and weakness.  Thanks a lot!

As one of the small flock chicken farmer in Ontario Canada, you have damaged me and my chicken farm.

In Luke 23:34, Jesus, while on the cross, said:

 “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Incompetency and lack of awareness won Jesus’ recommendation for forgiveness.  It appears that you are incompetent, and lack awareness of both animal welfare and the managing of people.  Perhaps you should be forgiven for your failings and sins too.

Mr. Burrows and Maple Lodge Farms may be suffering from the Dunning–Kruger Effect, which is a cognitive bias wherein unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than is accurate.

"If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent. […] the skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is."

David Dunning

Having a name for your disease is half the battle.  Now all we need is a cure.  How about the cure of disciplinary firing for Mr. Burrows?

Someday, I hope to forgive you, Mr. Burrows.  However, I will never forget what you have done to those unfortunate chicken, to me, to all the other chicken farmers, and to Canada.

Oscar Wilde said,

“Every Saint has a past, and every Sinner has a future.”

Perhaps you hope that Oscar Wilde's maxim applies to you, Mr. Burrows; your sordid past, and your potentially illustrious future as a Chicken Mafia millionaire.

*  *  *

I'm done with them and their Chicken Mafia brotherhood.  Now it's your turn, my faithful Blog Dog Readers.

Do you have some comments you'd like to make to Maple Lodge Farms, and their President Michael Burrows?  If yes, here are the links.  Let them know how you truly feel.

Email Maple Lodge Farms

"Contact Us" page of  Maple Lodge Farms website page

Breach of Trust by Egg Mafia?

A video alleging neglect and abuse of chicks and laying hens on two Alberta Canada factory farms operated by members of Alberta's #EggMafia is available here and mainstream media reports here.  The undercover video is embedded below:



Alberta Chicken Producers ("ACP", one of the Supply Management governing body for Alberta's Chicken Mafia) has an interesting slide deck on trust, and building consumer confidence. Quite a contrast between the training course and what we see in this shocking video.

I suggest downloading a copy of this training course, as it may soon disappear.

http://www.chicken.ab.ca/images/stories/pdf/2013-charlie-arnot-building-public-trust.pdf

If it does disappear, I have archived a copy here, as of 2013/10/22 13:30 EDT:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3ti601il76ldz3/2013-charlie-arnot-building-public-trust.pdf

Based on this presentation, I conclude that ACP knew better.

Egg Farmers of Alberta ("EFA") is the Egg Mafia's governing body for egg producers in Alberta.  Do they talk to the boys over at ACP?  Did EFA have a similar policy and training program?  I can't find anything to that effect on EFA's website except a press release about slow transition away from battery cage systems.  If ACP knew better, then I can only assume that EFA knew better, or should have known better, but these shocking allegations come to light while under their watchful (or blindfolded) eyes.

Egg carton crafts by EFA. 
Don't they have something more important to
do with their limited time and resources?

It seems EFA's main focus for some time now is on egg recipes and egg carton crafts for kids. Recipes that use eggs are already available from many sources.  I'm sure kids enjoy the craft projects, but is that really EFA's top #1 priority, or should EFA focus first on more important issues?

Once EFA has all their top priority work done (eg. animal welfare, egg prices dropping due to better productivity, etc.) everything is running well, and all risks are contained, then and only then should EFA feel free to play with their egg carton artwork all day.    Prevention and ensuring of animal welfare by and for the Egg Mafia must come first and foremost.

Is EFA solely and exclusively re-arranging the deck chairs to make them pretty when they should be in the wheelhouse bridge, watching for and avoiding ice burgs?  No wonder the Egg Mafia and Supply Management is sinking like the Titanic.

"I share in the public's response to the video. The images were unacceptable."— Peter Clarke, Board Chairman, Egg Farmers of Canada
                                                        as quoted by CBC News

Egg Farmers of Canada ("EFC") sets the standards and expectations on a Canada-wide basis for egg farms; or they're supposed to.  Setting adequate and enforceable standards, then regular auditing to those standards is one of the three mandatory governance roles for EFC.  Corrective actions and continuous improvement are the other two legs of this three legged governance stool.  Did EFC do an adequate job in its important public trust?

Should everybody be held equally responsible?  By that I mean all who were directly and indirectly involved (ie. EFA, EFC, ACP, the farmer who owned the quota for the accused chicken factories, and the employees who did the actions and inactions complained against)?

Let's not forget what Farm Products Council of Canada ("FPCC") was doing while all of this was going on.  FPCC is supposed to be checking to make sure the overall egg supply management system is working well, and all of these other organizations (EFC, EFA, ACP, etc. ) are doing their job.  Did FPCC do an adequate job of auditing and supervising their charges?  Could FPCC have done differently years ago, so as to reduce the probability of this alleged abuse occurring?

If the video is real and a fair representation of events, I suggest there has been a breach of the public's trust, in addition to any civil and/or criminal charges that may soon be laid.

Trust is formed and protected by 4 factors:

1. Benevolent best interest of the other party
2. Open and honest communication
3. Competency
4. Predictable behaviour

When something like the Alberta chicken scandal occurs, I suggest that this wasn't the treatment that the chickens wanted nor expected to receive, nor the public (ie. breach of public trust).  Hindsight may soon prove that actions were negligent or worse,  and are therefore probably not in those Egg Mafia  farmer's best interest either, neither in the short term nor long term.

Arising from the factors affecting trust, I have some questions:

1. Was there open & honest communication:
• on the farm between the workers and the farm owner?
• were all employees required to report all suspected incidents of abuse, crime, or risky behaviours by anybody on staff, suppliers, or visitors?
• between the farmer and his customers, such as McDonald's Restaurants?
• between the farmer and Egg Farmers of Alberta ("EFA")?
• EFA farm inspectors and the EFA Board?
• EFA Board and the  public?
2. Who knew this was going on & when did they know?  Was there a duty to act so as to stop it, or report it to authorities?
3. Did EFA mislead the public by re-assuring us that all was well, that all animals within their Egg Mafia systems were being properly cared for?
• Did they have objective evidence to back up those assurances? 
• Did they know those assurances were true?  
• Did they care whether those assurances were 100% fair and true, mis-leading, distracting from the true issues, or not true?
• Did they disclose their assumptions?
4. Was there proper training for employees at those farms, as provided by the farm owner(s)?
5. Did the Egg Mafia farmer(s) adequately supervise, audit, and inspect his operations, and the work habits of his staff?
6. How did the farm owners objectively prove that employee training was effective, and being consistently followed?
7. Was EFA competent and effective in the regulations and  rules it established that could have prevented these alleged acts from occurring, or detected them earlier?
8. Did EFA define, provide, and ensure that quota holders received adequate training, and had full comprehension, and consistently practiced those training and expectations?
9. If yes to all the above, how do we explain the alleged acts that we see in the video?

These are some tough questions that need to be answered.

In time, we will learn if these allegations are true.

In the interim, I conclude there is already more than enough evidence to convict Canada's Egg Mafia and the Supply Management System for both chicken and eggs as being chronically dysfunctional, ineffective, wrong headed, costly, inefficient, an embarrassment to all Canadians, and desperately in need of immediate reform.