National animal advocacy groups are calling on the Buffalo County district attorney to charge a bankrupt chicken processor over the abandonment of hundreds of thousands of chickens last fall.
More than 475,000 chickens across 11 poultry facilities were left in Wisconsin after Pure Prairie Poultry abruptly shut down its Iowa plant. With no money to continue feeding or to euthanize the birds, the contracted farms in western Wisconsin turned to Facebook and Reddit to give away the chickens to anyone who would take them.
Animal Partisan and Humane Farming Association, two national groups that oppose large-scale animal agriculture, are now calling on Buffalo County District Attorney Tom Bilski to criminally charge the company.
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They say Pure Prairie’s actions violate a state law prohibiting the abandonment of animals and another statute that requires animal owners to provide adequate food and water.
“Here we had thousands and thousands of chickens that were not provided with food for many, many weeks by a company that was contractually obligated to do so,” said Will Lowery, legal counsel for Animal Partisan.
The groups point to a contract Pure Prairie signed with Buffalo County farmers Terry and Dawn Filla to raise broiler chickens, which states the company “shall remain the owner at all times” of the chickens and “shall be exclusively responsible to deliver, provide and pay for feed” for the birds.
According to an affidavit by Dawn Filla, Pure Prairie first failed to pick up 24,000 chickens from the farm on Sept. 17, three days before the company filed for bankruptcy. The Fillas ran out of feed for the chickens on Sept. 28 and made daily requests to Pure Prairie for feed for more than a week.
The chickens were without food for a period of 19 days, according to Filla’s affidavit, during which the couple gave away the birds through a post on Facebook. The document states Pure Prairie still owes the couple $170,000 in reimbursements.
Lowery argues Wisconsin law could allow the district attorney to charge Pure Prairie for each chicken the company abandoned. But the groups have asked Bilski to bring 30 misdemeanor charges against the company, representing the 30 chickens found dead on the Fillas’ farm the day after they ran out of food.
“We felt that it was to some extent symbolic of what happened, but it also would impose a meaningful penalty if there was a conviction,” Lowery said.
Pure Prairie has already faced a myriad of legal challenges over the last nine months. Most have been related to the repayment of around $139 million owed to the company’s creditors, according to KAAL-TV.
An attorney that has represented Pure Prairie did not respond to WPR’s request for comment.
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