June 2025:
Animal Partisan and the Humane Farming Association today announced the filing of a criminal complaint against Pure Prairie Poultry (PPP), seeking 30 criminal charges and a $300,000 penalty. The action aims to hold PPP criminally liable under Wisconsin law for abandoning thousands of chickens to starve following the company’s sudden attempted bankruptcy and to highlight the harm caused by industrial animal agriculture to both animals and contract farmers.
Pure Prairie Poultry’s closure is the latest incident in which a poultry industry corporation abruptly ceased operations and abandoned third-party growers and the animals in their care. A separate lawsuit was filed in Arkansas against Cooks Venture in 2023, alleging executives deceived farmers into debt for a promised sustainable poultry business, only to go bankrupt, leaving growers with massive debt and piled bodies of hundreds of thousands of chickens killed with a suffocating chemical foam by Arkansas officials at Cooks Venture’s request.
Pure Prairie Poultry operated on a similar contract model in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, retaining chicken ownership while being solely responsible for feed, transport, and utility reimbursements. The complaint details the ordeal of a pair of Wisconsin farmers who were abandoned by PPP and left with empty feed bins for weeks, no financial or contractual way to obtain feed, and thousands of starving, dying, or dead chickens.
After nearly two years under contract, the Wisconsin farmers saw signs of PPP’s financial instability, including missed payments and a skipped pickup of 24,000 chickens on September 17, 2024. Unbeknownst to them, PPP had filed for bankruptcy. On September 28, 2024, 11 days after their scheduled pickup, and without any official notification, the Wisconsin farmers’ chickens ran out of feed. Despite desperate daily contact with PPP and false assurances, no feed or pickup materialized by October 7, the date that had been promised. The chickens endured 19 days without food, with 24-50 dying daily, primarily from starvation. Unable to sell the company-owned birds, the farmers eventually gave all the surviving chickens away to prevent further suffering.
PPP’s abandonment and starvation of chickens was widespread. PPP’s financial failures and lack of accountability impacted 11 Wisconsin flocks (476,800 birds) and forced the euthanasia of 1.3 million chickens in Iowa. Congressman Derrick Van Orden wrote a letter to the USDA to question how a company with a $38.7 million USDA loan could abandon over 2 million chickens and 50 farmers across three states. More than nine months later, this devastating situation remains largely unresolved, and PPP remains unaccountable for its criminal conduct.
Animal Partisan and the Humane Farming Association’s complaint to the Buffalo County District Attorney seeks prosecution of PPP under Wisconsin statutes prohibiting depriving animals of food (Wis. Stat. § 951.13(1)) and animal abandonment (Wis. Stat. § 951.15). These statutes affirm PPP’s duty to provide feed, a responsibility not negated by bankruptcy proceedings or financial mismanagement. The 30 charges symbolize each chicken found dead on September 29, 2024, the day after feed bins emptied.
Animal Partisan and the Humane Farming Association are committed to ensuring industrial animal agriculture corporations face real consequences for their criminal conduct, deterring future cruelty, and protecting both animals and farmers from exploitation driven by corporate greed.
Animal Partisan represents itself in this matter and the Humane Farming Association is represented by Greenfire Law PC.
OCTOBER 30, 2024:
Congressmen Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, Brad Finstad from Minnesota, and Randy Feenstra of Iowa wrote a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding Pure Prairie Poultry’s shutdown. The Minnesota company closed its doors, leaving almost 50 farmers and over two million chickens in those three states with no feed or processing options. The members highlighted the lack of oversight and accountability by USDA and requested answers from the agency on their loan and grant process, as well as what they know about Pure Prairie Poultry’s bankruptcy filing.
“The USDA will answer for the $45.5 million in loans and agricultural grants given to Pure Prairie Poultry, and the company will answer for what they did with that money before they stiffed our farmers,” Van Orden says. “I’m so thankful for how our farmers put the welfare of their flocks first and am proud to advocate for them on the House Agriculture Committee.
OCTOBER 29, 2024:
After the sudden closure of Pure Prairie Poultry left many farmers stuck with birds they couldn’t feed, Iowa has now culled approximately 1.3 million chickens after being unable to find a market for the birds.
Iowa’s Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said it euthanized birds between October 17 and October 25, 2024, due to the unavailability of buyers, a lack of processing capacity, and the costs to feed and care for the birds. The state had taken custody of the birds when the Minnesota-based company shut its doors and closed its Iowa processing plant, laying off 138 workers. Iowa had an offer from Tyson Foods to buy the birds for processing when they reach market weight. However, that offer was pulled back at the last minute after creditors threatened to sue for part of Tyson’s profits. State officials received court permission to euthanize the birds on October 11.
OCTOBER 18, 2024:
UNDATED (AP)- Dozens of farmers in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin are scrambling to feed their flocks after a struggling organic broiler chicken producer abruptly closed a year after getting a $39 million federal loan.
Pure Prairie Poultry shuttered its Charles City, Iowa, plant after filing for bankruptcy last month (Sept. 2024). The Minnesota company provided farmers with chicks and feed to raise until the birds were ready to be slaughtered and prepared for sale at the northeastern Iowa processing center.
“We know that our difficulties are causing real hardship for our growers and for others,” Pure Prairie spokesperson Jon Austin said in an email. “And for that we apologize without reservation.”
In bankruptcy court documents, the company detailed its fight to reopen and make profits after acquiring the struggling Charles City plant in 2021.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022 gave Pure Prairie a $39 million guaranteed loan to expand operations, as well as a $7 million grant. The company said the grant worked as a stopgap until it got access to the loan in April 2023.
In court records, the company said financial problems also stemmed from supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and low chicken prices.
Pure Prairie ultimately backed out of bankruptcy, and Austin said the company’s funds subsequently were frozen by a third-party lender.
Austin said Pure Prairie is still trying to sell the business.
After Pure Prairie Poultry closed, checks and chicken feed for farmers raising the birds dried up — threatening an animal welfare crisis and straining farmers’ finances, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin, said in a Wednesday letter (Oct. 16, 2024) requesting help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“This situation remains urgent due to the hundreds of thousands of animals’ lives at risk and the financial hit for the farmers that contracted with this processor,” Baldwin wrote.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture earlier this month pledged to feed and help care for about 1.3 million chickens at 14 Iowa farms. The agency took ownership of the birds through a court order and now is trying to recoup costs from Pure Prairie.
Another 300,000 chickens in Minnesota were “processed, moved off the farms, or depopulated,” state Agriculture Department spokesperson Allen Sommerfeld said in a statement.
“The MDA, farmers, and partners were able to process some birds, and others were given away by farmers,” Sommerfeld said. “While the chickens do not pose a health or safety risk, the MDA utilized emergency resources to ensure the remaining chickens were humanely depopulated according to American Veterinary Medication Association standards and overseen by experts from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.”
Baldwin in her letter to the USDA warned about the risk of bird flu spreading in Wisconsin “as farmers have no better option than to give away chickens by the tens of thousands” to people who can afford to feed them.
A USDA spokesperson said the agency is in touch with the Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of agriculture and is considering what financial aid could be made available to local farmers. Growers can file claims with the USDA and get support from local Natural Resources Conservation Service centers.
“At the same time, the number of producers who relied on this market underscores the need to explore how the facility might continue with a return to profitability, which USDA will continue to assist in,” the spokesperson said.
OCTOBER 17, 2024:
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) called on the USDA to provide immediate assistance for Wisconsin farmers who were impacted by the sudden closure of Pure Prairie Poultry. The shutdown left the state’s poultry producers staring at crippling financial losses without feed and a processor for the birds.
“Hard-working Wisconsin farmers have been left high and dry by the abrupt closure of Pure Prairie Poultry,” says Senator Baldwin. “Our agriculture industry is the beating heart of many of our communities, and, in the face of this dire situation, I’m calling on USDA to do everything they can for these Wisconsin farmers who face financial ruin through no fault of their own.”
She also raised concerns for the animal’s well-being and the potential for this closure to exasperate the avian flu outbreak as farmers are resorting to giving away chickens by the tens of thousands. Pure Prairie Poultry filed for bankruptcy in September 2024.
OCTOBER 15, 2024:
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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