Owned By
Atlas HoldingsFoster Farms is the largest poultry producer on the West Coast and is owned by Atlas Holdings. It supplies from at least 103 chicken and turkey factory farms in California and sells under the consumer brand name Foster Farms.
Foster Farms is American Humane certified and brags about having twice raised the “Presidential Turkey,” who is “pardoned” by the president. Yet, animal abuse has been repeatedly documented at Foster Farms facilities in California by Animal Equality, Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), and Animal Outlook (AO). These investigations spanned a Foster Farms hatchery, several of its chicken and turkey factory farms, and its largest slaughterhouse.
At a Foster Farms chicken hatchery in Waterford, California in 2021, an undercover investigator with Animal Equality documented live chicks being mutilated by fast-moving machinery and then left for hours until they were dumped into a chute where they would be ground up alive. They also saw chicks who were trapped in dirty trays and ended up drowning in scalding water in the company's washing machine.
At Foster Farms chicken farms, DxE investigators have found dead, partially buried chickens, chickens with splayed legs struggling to walk, and both live and dead chickens trapped inside of feeders. In September 2021, DxE released hidden-camera footage from inside Foster Farms' largest slaughterhouse, which is in Livingston, showing chickens routinely missing the stun bath and a device designed to cut their necks, leaving it to workers to identify conscious birds before their evisceration, at a speed of 140 birds per minute. Sick and injured birds were thrown to the ground and sometimes buried beneath other chickens.
In 2022, DxE investigated a Foster Farms turkey factory farm and found dozens of baby turkeys collapsed on their backs, dead baby turkeys having their eyes and brains eaten by bugs, and buckets filled with dead bodies. Footage also showed large numbers of litter beetles which can be a vector for avian influenza as well as E. coli, Newcastle disease, turkey coronavirus, and Marek's disease among others.
An investigation by Animal Outlook (AO) released in October 2024 exposed Foster Farms employees driving forklifts over chickens, throwing them into transport cages, and kicking them. This included conduct by managers and supervisors.
Foster Farms has also come under fire for endangering workers. California's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the Foster Farms poultry plant and distribution center in Livingston nearly $200,000 for 14 total COVID-19 violations, including failure to timely report work-related fatalities. OSHA also alleges Foster Farms failed to provide or implement the use of effective face coverings, physical distancing, or effective physical barriers between workers. The Fresno Bee reported that this fine is one of the steepest citations Cal OSHA has issued during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2020, a Foster Farms employee died while working at the production line at the company's Turlock facility. He was pulled into the production conveyor by his neck, which resulted in his skull being crushed. In June 2020, a 30-year-old contract worker named Victor Gamez III died in an industrial accident at Foster Farms's Fresno processing plant. In January 2021, a Foster Farms employee was found dead under a truck that was running near the company's Livingston slaughterhouse.
The Foster Farms slaughterhouse in Livingston is the largest consumer of water in the city, using as much as four million gallons of drinkable water per day. Meanwhile, residents in rural Livingston, who are predominantly Latino and disproportionately low-income, face water shortages. In September 2020, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) filed a lawsuit against Foster Farms for its use of vast quantities of water in violation of the California Constitution. In their statement on the lawsuit, ALDF writes: “Live-hang slaughter with electric immobilization is notorious for the animal suffering it causes, and massive amounts of water it requires — in part because being handled and shackled is a terrifying experience for the chickens, who often defecate and vomit on themselves. In addition to the water used to immobilize and defeather the chickens, large volumes of water are needed to clean the feces and vomit from the chickens' bodies after they die.”
You can see the locations of Foster Farms's California factory farms in the map below.
