October 23, 2013

McDonald's Canada does not buy eggs produced from two Alberta farms featured in a gruesome documentary showing chickens subject to what an animal rights group is calling "egregious animal cruelty."

However, McDonald's has confirmed in an email that it does buy eggs from Burnbrae Farms headquartered in Ontario that does business with the two farms from Alberta featured in the CTV W5 documentary aired last week.

Burnbrae Farms president Margaret Hudson confirmed in a statement that the company has purchased eggs from Kuku Farms and Creekside Grove Farms, but never sold those eggs and product of any kind to McDonald's Canadian supply chain.

The hidden-camera footage is filmed by Mercy For Animals Canada. It shows hens crowded in battery cages and chicks being violently smashed against hard surfaces by workers and then thrown into garbage bags at what the organisation says is KuKu Farms and Creekside Grove Farms. The video also shows dead hens rotting in the cages, and chicks being covered in faeces.

Burnbrae Farms said the company does not tolerate animal abuse, and it has "suspended the purchase of eggs from the farms depicted in the video pending full investigation."

Photos on the Mercy For Animals Canada website indicate eggs in trays with packing labels that show they come from KuKu Farms and are destined for Burnbrae Farms. Mercy For Animals Canada said its video footage was taken by an undercover investigator who was hired as a farm worker by KuKu Farms and Creekside Grove Farms in May.

Creekside Grove Farms provides chicks to KuKu Farms, and KuKu Farms then supplies eggs to Burnbrae Farms, the organisation said.

Amin Valji, general manager of KuKu Farms and Creekside Grove Farms, said in an emailed statement that he and his family care for their hens, and they were "deeply upset" by some of the images in the video footage. After learning about the video, the company immediately had inspections of the farm conducted by their regulating organisations and a poultry veterinarian, he said.

Additional staff training with the help of a poultry veterinarian has been conducted for all their employees and all staff members have signed a code of conduct based on their training. Any departure from that code of conduct will be cause for immediate disciplinary action, he added.

Egg Farmers of Canada chairman Peter Clarke said they are investigating Mercy For Animal Canada's video to make sure it is authentic and it has also launched an investigation of the two Alberta farms.