PEOPLE-MOBY/ANIMAL PROTEST Protesters, including electronic music star Moby, demonstrate against chicken producer they accuse of animal cruelty

Record ID: 146322

  • Title: PEOPLE-MOBY/ANIMAL PROTEST Protesters, including electronic music star Moby, demonstrate against chicken producer they accuse of animal cruelty
  • Date: 25th July 2015
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 24, 2015) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS STANDING OUTSIDE A LOCAL VONS SUPERMARKET VARIOUS OF MUSICIAN AND DJ MOBY STANDING WITH DEMONSTRATORS (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOBY, MUSICIAN AND DJ, SAYING: "Specifically, why I'm here is, even my friends who are meat eaters are horrified by how companies like Foster Farms treat chickens and treat
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1XODLHSADP8HQI5UWX1NGBOKR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Electronic music impresario Moby joined a group of protesters on Friday (July 24), including one dressed as a gory seven-foot-tall chicken, to demand that a Los Angeles area chicken producer adopt a humane animal welfare policy.
    Moby, who says he has been a vegan since 1987, called on supermarket chain Vons to stop selling meat from Foster Farms, a west coast poultry company he says uses inhumane slaughter practices.
    "Vons sells chickens from Foster Farms. I don't have any particular beef, no pun intended, with Vons but they do support Foster Farms so that's why we're here, just hoping to encourage Vons and Foster Farms to change their corporate policies," he said.
    Foster Farms said on July 3 it had suspended five workers as it investigates claims of animal abuse at some of its Fresno, California, facilities, the company said.
    The company's internal investigation followed the release of hidden-camera footage by an animal rights group, Mercy For Animals, that allegedly showed workers punching chickens, mistreating young chicks and apparently scalding live birds in hot water to remove their feathers.
    Bill Mattos of the California Poultry Federation said chickens in California are treated well.
    "Chickens are treated very humanely. From the time of birth until the time that they are processed they are in 76 degree (Fahrenheit) houses, plenty of room to run around, walk around. There's no cages in the meat industry and so the chickens are really in a great environment until they're tenderly processed."
    Moby is planning to open an organic, vegan restaurant in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. He also co-founded TeaNY, a vegetarian and vegan cafe in New York.
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