Salmon farm faces new cruelty claims as Trump seeks to supersize fish farming

"The covert video taken by the Animal Outlook activist group, which it sent to the Guardian, shows staff at the Cooke Aquaculture salmon hatchery in Bingham, Maine, clubbing fish with metal poles, aiming kicks at them as they writhe on the ground and in one instance cutting into a living fish. Deformities and fungal infections were also prevalent in the fish, according to Animal Outlook. A fish with apparent fungal infection. Photograph: Courtesy Animal Outlook"

"Employees told the undercover activist that they give the fish feed contaminated by rats, have mistakenly let penned fish escape into surrounding wild waterways and that they kill thousands of fish because they have produced too many of them. Unfortunately I don't think the company is in it for the fish health side, they just want fish production, one worker states on the video."

"The video, shot between September and December last year by an activist who worked as a hatchery technician, is the second such undercover recording taken by Animal Outlook at the same facility. In 2019, a similar video shot undercover by the group showed deformed salmon thrown into plastic containers where they suffocated. Granted, we did a lot of stuff we weren't supposed to fucking do, one employee said on the latest video about the previous expose."

A US push to mass-produce fish on an industrial scale is linked to concerns about animal welfare and environmental impacts. Undercover footage from a Maine salmon hatchery alleges cruel treatment of fish, including clubbing with metal poles, kicking, and cutting into living fish. The footage also reports deformities and fungal infections among the fish. Employees reportedly described feeding fish contaminated by rats, allowing penned fish to escape into nearby waterways, and killing thousands of fish after producing too many. The facility is said to have been recorded previously, with earlier allegations involving deformed salmon suffocated in plastic containers. Claims include staff prioritizing production over fish health.

Read at www.theguardian.com