The executive director of the Iowa Egg Council and Iowa Poultry Association, says they will fully investigate claims by the Humane Society of the United States that chickens in Iowa were abused. The group showed a video Wednesday showing the mistreatment of the animals that it says was shot inside barns owned by two Iowa companies, Rose Acre Farms and Rembrandt Enterprises. Iowa Egg Council executive director Kevin Vinchattle says they take the claims seriously.
Vinchattle says they need to let both firms investigate and find out what the reality is, as he says in the past such videos have been staged. “We just have to find out what the reality is, so we know what the appropriate response is,” Vinchattle says, “but the bottom line is, this is not how it is intended to happen nor how it is supposed to happen.” Vinchattle says, If the video proves to be legitimate, then the problems need to be addressed.
He says he has every confidence the two firms will look at the video and determine if it was in fact shot at their facilities as H-S-U-S says it is. Vinchattle says if they find the video is legitimate they will make sure things like that are not happening. H-S-U-S says the companies should switch to cage-free operations to produce their eggs.