In Iowa, one of the nation’s largest egg producers roasted 5.3 million chickens alive. The reason: Because of a single case of bird flu, the animals had to be culled. But the suffering continues. The company fired almost all of its employees after the culling.

In the US city of Iowa, the country’s largest egg producer “Rembrandt Enterprises” killed 5.3 million chickens. Why? A single animal was infected with bird flu. The company began mass culling the 5.3 million chickens in March. When these were completed and the carcasses removed and buried by the employees, “Rembrandt Enterprises” unceremoniously fired almost all employees.

Egg factory kills 5.3 million chickens – with ‘inhumane’ method

The criticism of the approach of “Rembrandt Enterprises” is immense. A former Rembrandt employee spoke to the Guardian about the culling method. “They cooked those birds alive,” he explains. A local journalist, meanwhile, revealed the exact method. The 5.3 million animals were killed using the Ventilation Shutdown Plus system. That means: The air supply to the barns was closed and the heat was pumped in until the temperature reached 40 degrees.

According to North Carolina University, this method is said to inflict “extreme suffering” on the animals. 

They “writhe, gasp, pant, stagger and even throw themselves against the walls of their confinement in a desperate attempt to escape,” an animal rights group explains the university’s findings. 

“Eventually the birds collapse and, finally, die from heat and suffocation.”

Rembrandt: Criticism of the working conditions and dealing with the employees

Also involved in the culling was Oscar Garcia, a former supervisor at the Iowa eggplant. 

“Right now everybody’s worried about the chickens,” Garcia says. “We get it: it was really inhumane the way they killed them. But chickens are chickens, right? People worked in those barns pulling out dead birds in terrible conditions, faeces everywhere, doing 12- or 14-hour days.”

“Rembrandt Enterprises” laid off almost 250 employees after the Kelungs action. Gracia explains further: no one could “protest because then they’d be fired and lose their redundancy pay. Then they’re thrown out of work and no one speaks for them.”

Other fired employees also question the radical culling. In the midst of the largest bird flu outbreak in the United States in seven years, the Rembrandt Enterprise summarily killed 5.3 million animals. Because of a single outbreak of bird flu.

This contrasts with the company’s rather “lax” approach as employees contracted Covid-19 one by one. 

The company has not yet commented on the criticism.

Image Credit: Getty

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