Problems For Minnesota Egg Producer

A Minnesota company is under scrutiny after allegations of animal cruelty and warnings from the Food and Drug Administration to clean up.

McDonald’s announced it was dropping the Litchfield-based Sparboe Farms as a supplier after an undercover video by an animal rights group showed employees mistreating birds and unsanitary conditions.

Sparboe Farms produces more than 3 billion eggs each year.

The group Mercy for Animals released the video earlier this month to ABC News. Sparboe Farms says it fired employees shown mistreating the animals and has established a humane treatment policy and is retraining staff in the wake of the video’s release.

The loss of McDonald’s draws additional scrutiny to the troubled farm and is a good reminder as to why we need a strong and consistent regulatory presence in the Food and Drug Administration. It is no surprise that animal mistreatment would occur in a facility cited for unsanitary conditions–in many ways the two go hand and hand. And it is that kind of bad, and frankly dangerous, business practice that can go unchecked and bring tragedy to a family.

Hopefully the high-profile nature of the video spawns real change at Sparboe Farms. If the allegations in the video are true, they represent a business culture that is antithetical to Minnesota values. We don’t ever want to see business putting innocent lives at risk for the sake of their own bottom line. McDonld’s understands that it can’t risk the potential liability and bad press associated with a wide-ranging product recall. So hopefully these interests also came in time to avoid anyone getting hurt.

The attorneys at Lord & Faris are here to help. If you or a loved one has been injured due to a contaminated product, contact us. Your rights may be in the balance.

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