TLDR:

United States taxpayers were forced to hand over millions of dollars to bailout huge corporations like Hormel Foods, Tyson Foods, Weber Family Farms, Pitman Family Farms, Foster Farms, among others that cruelly killed their animals with heatstroke. More than $1 billion has been spent during the 2022-2024 avian influenza outbreak when many companies resorted to exterminating their animals using ventilation shutdown plus (VSD+), a process that involves sealing up buildings and pumping in heat until the animals inside suffer an agonizing and prolonged death lasting several hours. 

Join veterinarians urging corporations to prohibit the use of VSD+ and adopt less cruel methods to end the lives of their animals. Since we are paying these corporations, whether we purchase their products or not, they have an obligation to put emergency plans in place to responsibly care for their animals and, if needed, end their lives in less cruel ways. 

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The long version: 

Since 2022, more than $715 million dollars of public funds have been granted to bail out corporations that used the cruelest methods to kill their animals during the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak. Their failure to put emergency plans in place to end the lives of their animals in less cruel ways led these corporations to resort to sealing up barns, pumping in heat, and waiting for the birds inside to die in agony after many hours in a killing process known as Ventilation Shutdown plus (VSD+). 

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Livestock Indemnity Payment program granted more than $85 million dollars to Jennie-O Turkey Store alone, while their parent company, Hormel Foods, recorded net sales surpassing $12.1 billion in 2023 in 2023, with an operating income of more than $1 billion. Tyson Foods was given more than $29 million dollars while bringing in more than $13 billion dollars in sales in 2023 and compensating CEO Donny King with more than $13 million dollars in 2023. Overall, the top 10 companies took more than 41% of the total indemnity payments. 

Disturbingly, many of these large companies including Jennie-O, Tyson Foods, Rembrandt Farms owned by billionaire Glenn Taylor, Pitman Family Farms, Weber Family Farms, Cold Spring Egg Farms, Foster Farms, and Opal Foods failed to put plans in place to end the lives of their animals in less cruel ways and resorted to sealing up barns, pumping in heat and waiting for the birds inside to die in agony after many hours in a killing process known as Ventilation Shutdown plus (VSD+). 

Under pressure from industry, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), listed VSD+ as a method of killing in “constrained circumstances,” allowing corporations to receive taxpayer-subsidized indemnity payments when their animals were killed using this method. This policy meant companies had no financial incentive to put plans in place to end the lives of their animals in less cruel ways. The USDA and the AVMA formed a cooperative agreement allowing the AVMA Guidelines on Depopulation to dictate USDA policies and indemnity payments. 

More than 2,000 veterinarians have signed onto Veterinarians Against Ventilation Shutdown to ask the American Veterinary Medical Association to reclassify heatstroke-based killing as a “not recommended” form of depopulation. After more than three years of inaction, we are now encouraging the companies who took our hard-earned dollars and asking them to do the right thing and pledge never to use heatstroke-based killing again.

A recent peer-reviewed article discussing the increased use of heatstroke-based depopulation of animals in emergency situations explains how poultry birds “possess a rete mirabile ophthalmicum,” an anatomic vascular cooling system that may protect the brain from increases in body temperature, meaning that the birds may suffer for a prolonged period of time from the effects of the heat on their body without losing consciousness. All species experience similar effects of heatstroke which include shock, gastrointestinal bleeding and sloughing, vomiting, respiratory distress, organ damage, and internal bleeding.


Despite the inherent cruelty of this method of mass killing, instead of working to expand the availability and access to less cruel depopulation methods, on September 29, 2022, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) encouraged "APHIS to conduct scientific review on VSD+ as one of the preferred depopulation methods to rapidly eradicate highly contagious diseases."

We can no longer rely on the AVMA or NASDA to act with the urgency needed to address this issue, we must reach out to these companies directly and urge them to pledge to work with veterinarians and animal welfare experts to create plans to responsibly care for their animals during supply chain disruptions, or in the case of severe disasters or animal disease outbreaks that threaten the health and welfare of animals to end the lives of their animals in less cruel ways than heatstroke-based killing. Less cruel methods are well described in the scientific literature, and are not permitted in European countries, including the U.K., and are considered unethical due to the profound suffering they cause. 

We kindly request corporations aid in transparency by sharing their emergency plans publicly. The methods used should withstand professional and public scrutiny by clearly displaying their stockpile of necessary supplies and equipment and ensuring appropriate training of their workforce to responsibly care for their animals and, if necessary, end their lives in less cruel ways.

We encourage corporations to notify the veterinarians at Our Honor when a crisis occurs so they can thoughtfully mobilize, assist with efforts if needed, and find placement for any animals who could be rescued if sanctuary space exists. Our Honor veterinarians recognize not only the biosecurity threats animal diseases can pose but also the moral vulnerability and psychological distress these situations create for the people involved. However, even saving one life in an act of mercy and compassion can bring relief to the animal caretakers as well as the workers and veterinarians involved in depopulation events. Our Honor understands how bullying and retaliation by the public can lead to emotional distress for all involved, and will seek to communicate about the crisis, the lives saved, and the emotional toll with the utmost kindness and respect. 


We encourage these corporations to consider the future and address the public health and biodiversity threats created when corporations seek to increase slaughter-based food consumption. Creating additional markets for products produced from these methods not only demands increased production efficiency but also increased numbers of slaughtered animals. 

Recent work out of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, led by Dr. Aaron Bernstein, shows that modern intensive animal agriculture operations create a threat for the next pandemic, saying, “high-density livestock operations can serve as an opportune environment for spillover from wild animals into livestock or as incubators for pandemic influenza strains ... Large pig and poultry farms are where the genetic re-assortment needed to source pandemic influenza strains may most likely occur.” Thus, by incentivizing these large facilities through subsidies, we also incentivize the conditions that threaten public health. 

We encourage these corporations to create a long-term plan to move away from methods of production that require animal slaughter and help direct public funds away from such modes of production and towards production methods that increase affordability and accessibility of food that does not require the breeding, confinement, and slaughter of animals. This vision is essential to securing our future food supply while protecting our environment and public health. 

While animals live under our stewardship, we have a responsibility to provide them with food, shelter, pain relief, a quick and painless death, and a life worth living. While these corporations are taking our money, whether we purchase their products or not, we urgently request that they take action to protect the interests of all who provide for their profits with the sense of urgency the situation deserves.