Pure Prairie Poultry declared bankruptcy and shut down with little notice, affecting workers at a processing plant in Iowa and contract growers in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Farmers Union says this has left farmers in dire straits, with thousands of birds to feed and no feed or compensation coming. The growers are reporting that they will have to euthanize tens of thousands of birds because it’s too expensive to feed that many out of their own pockets.
Reports say Pure Prairie Poultry received $45 million in taxpayer subsidies in 2022. Chickens in some of the company’s Wisconsin sheds haven’t been fed for more than a week and have resorted to cannibalism to survive. No feed or relief from their suffering is in sight as Pure Prairie Poultry is no longer feeding the birds and refusing to respond to any inquiries from its contracted farmers about the situation.
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