You May No Longer Want To Buy Chicken At Costco, Here’s Why
Costco chicken is likely the cheapest you can buy right now, however, you may want to think twice before you do.
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In a hyper-inflated market where everything, especially food, costs more, Costco had been touted as one of the last places where you could buy a rotisserie chicken at a decent price. However, recent information has come to light that may give you some pause and cause you to rethink whether or not you actually want to purchase Costco chicken. Evidence has surfaced that suggests Costco mistreats the chickens it slaughters to then sell.
One of the major factors that allow Costco to keep its prices for chicken so low is the fact that they invested in building their own chicken farms from which they garner all of the supply they put out to their stores. However, a recent investigation done by animal rights watchdog organization Legal Impact for Chickens revealed the abhorrent conditions that Costco chickens allegedly live out their short lives in. The organization along with Animal Law Offices filed a lawsuit against Costco in relation to how they treat their Chickens.
The legal filing cited a laundry list of complaints pertaining to the Costco chickens. The claim specifically alludes to the fact that Costco knowingly invests in the breeding of birds that “grow so fast that many of them cannot stand under their own weight.” These unnaturally heavy birds are then shipped out to Costco farms in Iowa and Nebraska where the “disabled birds slowly die from hunger, thirst, injury, and illness.”
To further illustrate the disturbing picture surrounding how these poor Costco chickens live out their lives, the lawsuit cites that many of the birds have no way to reach any source of food or water. And due to their weight, many fall or roll over and remain that way until they die. The investigation that led to the formal legal filing emphasized that these birds receive no individual medical care and many are born with significant bone, lung, and heart abnormalities and deficiencies. If that weren’t disturbing enough, the investigation also revealed that birds were left to decompose for days after dying, meaning that the living birds were amongst rotting bacteria-ridden corpses. That not only sparks concern for the animals subjected to those horrors but for the end consumer who winds up eating the Costco chicken.
Alene Anello, who serves as the president of Legal Impact for Chickens, is calling for action against the wholesaler. “Once lauded as an innovative warehouse club, Costco today represents a grim existence for animals who are warehoused in inescapable misery.” Anello continued “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.”
Interestingly enough, this is not the first time Costco and the way it treats its chickens has been subject to serious inquiry. In early 2021, an article that appeared in The New York Times detailed the results of a Costco chicken-focused investigation led by another animal activist group out of concern for the welfare of the birds. The findings of that investigation were equally as disturbing as the ones to come out of the one conducted by Legal Impact For Chickens. At this point, it is unclear if Costco will face any consequences for its actions. Regardless of what happens though, you now might want to think twice before you buy a Costco chicken.
