Costco's hallmark $4.99 rotisserie chickens involve mistreated birds, two shareholders claim in a lawsuit filed this week in the retailer's home state of Washington.
The wholesale club opened a $450 million chicken processing plant in Nebraska in 2019 in an effort to control costs, and the suit filed Monday in the Superior Court of King County accuses Costco of"illegal neglect and abandonment" in the facility. The suitthat Costco intentionally breeds chickens too large to stand on their own, and the"disabled birds slowly die from hunger, injury and illness.
The company's practices are illegal in Iowa and Nebraska, two states where Costco keeps chickens, the complaint further alleges. "Once lauded as an innovative warehouse club, Costco today represents a grim existence for animals in Nebraska who are warehoused in inescapable misery," claimed Alene Anello, president of the group Legal Impact for Chickens, in a statement."Costco's executives must agree to follow both the law and general decency in order for Costco to resume being seen as an industry leader," added Anello, who represents the shareholders.
The suit follows allegations from another animal rights group about Costco's chickens. In 2021, Mercy for Animals covertly
That's why I shop at Walmart, all 🐔 chickens have penthouse pens with AC and have a rooster around to make them happy.