Perdue Hit with Class Action Lawsuit over ‘Humane’ Chicken

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Perdue Hit with Class Action Lawsuit over ‘Humane’ Chicken

By Anne Bucher

On Oct. 24, a putative class action lawsuit was launched against chicken producer Perdue Farms Inc., accusing the company of falsely advertising its chickens as being humanely raised by a process approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Wendy Roy filed the Perdue chicken class action lawsuit in Florida federal court, claiming that Perdue violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act when it included “Humanely Raised” and “USDA Process Verified” labels on its Harvestland line of chicken.

The class action lawsuit alleges that Perdue takes advantage of consumers’ growing sensitivity to animal cruelty and charged a premium for “humanely” raised chickens that were actually subjected to “extreme pain and duress.” Roy claims that Perdue’s standards are identical to guidelines of the National Chicken Council (NCC), an industry trade association “that exists to promote and protect the interests of the chicken industry.”

The class action lawsuit also alleges that the USDA verification label does not come from federal regulators, but instead comes from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, “whose mission is to increase the sales of farmed products.”

“In order to encourage low production costs, the NCC guidelines endorse and justify a system of mechanized brutality that routinely inflicts intense duress and pain on chickens, as discussed in more detail below,” the Perdue chicken class action lawsuit says.“These practices fall far below the level of treatment that Plaintiff and other reasonable consumers find ‘humane.’”

Roy alleges that Perdue’s chickens are selectively bred for unnaturally fast growth, which causes the chickens to suffer “cardiovascular problems, painful bone deformities, ruptured tendons, and lameness throughout their short lives.” According to the class action lawsuit, the chickens spend close to one-fifth of their lives in chronic pain. She also claims that the chickens are “subjected to inhumane handling in grow-out barns, on trucks, and by being shackled in ways that can break bones and dislocate joints.”

Roy claims that she purchased Harvestland chicken products on dozens of occasions between 2010 and 2012. In her class action lawsuit, she says that she “relied upon these deceptive and misleading claims in making her decision repeatedly to purchase the Harvestland chicken, and her understanding of the meaning of the ‘Humanely Raised’ and ‘USDA Process Verified’ label claims was objectively reasonable.”

According to the class action lawsuit, Roy would not have purchased Perdue chicken if she had known that the animals were inhumanely treated. She seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees.

Perdue is the fourth-largest poultry company in the United States, boasting about $4.6 million in annual sales. According to the class action lawsuit, Perdue produces more than half a billion chickens annually and processes more than 3 billion pounds of chicken per year.

Roy is represented by Jason Henry Alperstein and Jeffrey M. Ostrow of Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Keechl; Jonathan K. Tycko and Jeffrey D. Kaliel of Tycko & Zavareei LLP; and Jonathan R. Lovvorn and Rebecca A. Cary of the Humane Society of the United States.

The Perdue Harvestland Chicken Class Action Lawsuit is Wendy Roy, et al. v. Perdue Farms Inc., Case No. 6:13-cv-01656, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

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