Animal Rights Groups Call for Charges Against Processor for Abandoning Wisconsin Chickens

Jul 01, 2025

By Hope Kirwan

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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Video: ASF Control Lessons - Dr. Mary-Louise Penrith

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show Canada, Dr. Mary-Louise Penrith, Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, shares what decades of work have revealed about ASF control. She explains why vaccine development remains difficult, how human activity and food waste drive disease spread, why resistant pig populations are an important research area, and how strict biosecurity with the right disinfectants can help to stop transmission. Listen now on all major platforms!

"It's really a very human-driven disease because people move pigs, decide how they're raised, how they're sold, and good biosecurity can do anything to ensure control."

Meet the guest: Dr. Mary-Louise Penrith / mary-louise-penrith-2b12bb42 is an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. A veterinarian and internationally recognized researcher, she has dedicated decades to African swine fever epidemiology, control, and pig health, supporting FAO and WOAH initiatives while advancing research and education. Listen to Dr. Mary-Louise Penrith on the Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.