“I am disappointed and deeply saddened by what I saw today,” said Cooke CEO Glenn Cooke.
Yesterday, SalmonBusiness reported on the five-minute video, uploaded by the animal welfare and vegan activist organisation Compassion Over Killing on Youtube. The undercover footage showed what was alleged to be Cooke workers handling fish in a non professional manner at its Bingham hatchery.
Bangor Daily News reports that Jim Britt, spokesman for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, confirmed that an investigation by the department’s animal welfare program is now underway.
The salmon farmer company had met with Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry workers on Sept. 17 but had only seen the footage on Monday.
CEO Glenn Cooke added that he was “disappointed and deeply saddened” by what he saw today. “As a family company, we place animal welfare high in our operating standards and endeavor to raise our animals with optimal care and consideration of best practice. What we saw today is most certainly not reflective of these standards,” he added.
