A YouTube video surfaced Monday morning on Facebook showing at least one chick, with what sounds like peeping of others, among debris in the trash bin. Rural King features chicks and ducklings for sale from February through April, and also baby rabbits around Easter.
Karen Parker said she was at the store on Friday to buy some chicks, along with fed for other farm animals at her home in Dover.
"I would not spend money on those things," she said of her decision not to buy any of the chicks in a large pen inside the store. "They looked really, really bad. They had not been taken care of. It was beyond horrible."
While there, she said an employee was gathering up dead, injured or sick chicks in the pen, and she heard her talking to them, saying they would be nursed back to health in a Chicken ER in the rear of the store.
"I was happy they were going to be taken care of," Parker said.
When she drove to the back of the store to load feed bags, Parker said she heard "chickees." She investigated and opened the dumpster to find some live chicks inside.
"I was so upset," she said. "I told them to get me a ladder."
Of the 15 chicks she found, eight were still alive.
“I saw them in there screaming and flopping around. I cannot believe how mad I was,” she said. “It’s ridiculous that they don’t care anymore.”
After making the video, Parker said an employee who was helping her load her truck climbed into the dumpster and pulled out the eight chicks. She said another employee came out and said he was only doing what he was instructed to do.
"I'm a meat-eater, and I'm a hunter, but when you throw live animals into a dumpster, you have crossed the line," she said.
“They threw those babies in the garbage just because they don’t have time for them. For that to be acceptable is wrong. It’s not acceptable in my book,” she said.
Parker took the chicks, as well as an injured duckling she found in a pen inside and placed in her pocket.
On her drive home, she said a couple chicks died, and a few more died later. A small, quarter-size chick made it through the night with her care, but died around 9 a.m. on Saturday.
“They threw those babies in the garbage just because they don’t have time for them. For that to be acceptable is wrong. It’s not acceptable in my book,” she said. "This is America people. This sort of thing is ridiculous."
Management response
Late Monday morning, an assistant manager told The Leaf-Chronicle the incident was a mistake.
"It was a very bad mistake," Kathy Drouillard, an assistant manager, said. "That is not our practice. The manager has handled the situation and taken care of the employee."
Store manager Larry McClure later agreed.
"When I became aware of the situation, I reacted, and that person is no longer employed here," he said. "We have a high regard for live animals. Something like that won't be tolerated."
The person needs to be charged with cruelty to animals. Why doesn't corporate have the guts to insist upon this? Because this is their STANDARD PRACTICE. They shift blame onto one bad employee and then hope the story goes away so they can continue throwing dying animals into the trash.
McClure said guidelines on how to care for live animals sold at the company's 70 or so stores in nine states are sent from Rural King's corporate offices in Mattoon, Ill.
"We take pride in our animals," McClure said. "We work closely with a lot of farmers. We do not abuse animals."
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| Parker found the dead and dying animals in the dumpster |
Parker said this is not the first time she has seen animals at Rural King in poor condition.
“This is not my first rodeo with them. They have done this and done this,” she said. “When they mistreat something that can’t protect itself, it’s just wrong.”
Chicken ER
Former Rural King employee Kendel Jackson said in the past, sick or injured chicks were taken to the warehouse area of the store, and placed in a box where they could be nursed back to health.
"Some of them would make it, and some of them wouldn't," she said.
But recently, she said corporate instructed that the "Chicken ER," as she called it, be discontinued.
"We were told to just leave them in the cage until they die," she said.
Jackson, who said she worked at Rural King for about a year and a half, said the Chicken ER was in place last year and earlier this year until the corporate directive.
She said after the flap about live chicks tossed in a dumpster, corporate officials ordered the Chicken ER be restored on Monday.
McClure denied Jackson's claim.
"Nope," he responded to a question about store employees no longer being allowed to provide special care for sick or injured chicks. "I call them Chick Hospitals. But no, corporate never said that."
Jackson contacted The Leaf-Chronicle Monday afternoon and said she had quit her job earlier in the day because of the situation with the chicks.
"I'm an animal person," she said. "I don't agree with throwing away live chickens."
Brutal treatment
Parker said one of the problems with Rural King offering live chicks and ducklings, is their mistreatment by children, despite a sign posted that advises adult supervision at the pens.
"The kids are brutal," she said, describing that she has seen children dropping, throwing, squeezing and even stepping on the baby animals. "The chicks and the baby ducks are so mistreated by the kids because they don't know better, and their parents are not paying attention."
McClure agreed, and said the store tries to monitor activities around the pens that are placed on the floor.
"We try to have an associate there at all times," he said.
Parker said the effort is not enough.
"They should put the pens up out of the reach of children," she said.
(Clarksville Leaf Chronicle - March 23, 2015)
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