More than 1.4 million chickens stranded by closure of Pure Prairie Poultry plant euthanized

More than 1.4 million chickens whose fate was in limbo after an Iowa slaughterhouse went bankrupt have been euthanized, according to state officials.

“Given the unavailability of buyers and lack of processing capacity combined with the ever-increasing feed and yardage costs,” the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said in a news release, “the court granted the department authorization to begin depopulation.”

All 1.3 million chickens formerly owned by Pure Prairie Poultry on Iowa farms had been killed by Friday.

“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 agriculture department said.

Pure Prairie Poultry in Charles City, Iowa, abruptly shut its doors earlier this month after failing to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings. With a mountain of debt, it had failed to find a buyer. Pure Prairie, headquartered in Minnesota, also stopped delivering feed to the growers it contracted with to raise its chickens.

About 300,000 birds were left stranded in Minnesota without feed or a way for the farmers to market them. The company euthanized 139,000, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, while new homes or processing facilities were found for the rest.

In Wisconsin, 170,000 chickens found new homes, according to Breanna Patz, owner of poultry company Pips ‘n Chicks.

“That’s over 1 million pounds of meat going to small town families instead of being wasted,” she wrote on social media.

Farmers without feed were facing costs of $20,000 a week or more to care for a bankrupt company’s poultry, she said.

Wisconsin’s agriculture officials did not have a count of how many birds in the state were affected by the Pure Prairie closure. Unlike in Iowa, Wisconsin lacks legal authority or funding to assume care of the birds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture loaned and granted $45 million to Pure Prairie, and Republican members of Congress, including Minnesota Reps. Brad Finstad and Michelle Fischbach, are demanding answers from the USDA.

“We remain deeply concerned about the lack of oversight USDA has provided in this case,” reads a letter from the contingent of Midwestern lawmakers. “While we share USDA’s desired goals of expanding meat processing capacity and markets and building a robust national food supply chain, ... American taxpayers deserve the peace of mind that their dollars are being spent wisely.”

Wisconsin’s Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin urged the agency to “ensure a preventable emergency like this never happens again.”