1.3 million chickens in Iowa killed due to litigation threat

State agricultural officials recently killed about 1.3 million broiler chickens because they were unable to find a buyer for them, according to court records.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship took charge of the birds — housed at 13 farms in northwest Iowa — after their owner, Pure Prairie Poultry, of Minnesota, said a month ago it could not afford to feed them.

The company filed for bankruptcy last month, citing between $100 million and $500 million worth of debt, federal court records show. It had been operating at losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars per week and failed to obtain a loan to stay afloat.

The company has a chicken processing facility in Charles City that it reopened with the help of a $7 million federal grant and a $39 million loan that was backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That assistance was announced nearly two years ago and was expected to create about 400 jobs. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony in July at the site.

But Pure Prairie Poultry closed the facility and laid off its workers on Oct. 2, the state agriculture department said. That same day a judge granted the department's emergency request to take charge of the animals.

The department provided food, monitored the birds' health and hired someone to handle the overall management of them. It also unsuccessfully sought a buyer for the birds — and even contemplated giving them away for free — but those efforts were blocked by the threat of litigation.

Tyson Foods emerged as the only poultry processor that was willing to buy the birds, court records show. It planned to process the chickens on Saturdays — when it typically doesn't butcher the birds — for a period of five or six weeks. The company agreed to pay 50 cents per bird.

But some of Pure Prairie Poultry's creditors indicated they might seek part of Tyson's profits from the birds in court, and Tyson rescinded its offer.

Without a buyer, the ag department asked a judge to authorize it to "depopulate" the chickens.

"Though the department believes depopulation should always be a last resort, it provides finality to this unfortunate circumstance, limits the ever-increasing costs to the taxpayers of Iowa and prevents any potential animal welfare issues," the department said Friday.

The department did not specify what method it employed to kill the chickens, but it occurred over the course of about a week and concluded on Friday. It had estimated it would expend at least $1.5 million to feed and house the birds and then cull the flocks.

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