As co-creator of The Simpsons, I can find humor in almost anything. But I’m not laughing at the shocking images of blatant cruelty to animals from inside a Chick-fil-A supplier farm and slaughterhouse that I recently saw.

When my friends at Mercy For Animals showed me hidden-camera video footage exposing Chick-fil-A’s foul treatment of chickens, I was sick to my stomach. Now I need your help to stop it.

Using hidden cameras, Mercy For Animals investigators documented:

- Baby birds crammed by the tens of thousands into giant, windowless sheds, with sick, injured, and crippled birds left to suffer without proper veterinary care

- Workers carelessly grabbing birds by the legs, wings, and necks and then violently slamming them into transport crates

- Chickens having their fragile wings and legs broken as workers hastily and violently shackle them upside down

- Frightened birds dragged through an electrified vat of water, causing painful shocks but leaving them fully conscious

- Birds having their throats, wings, and chests sliced open while still conscious and able to feel pain

- Thousands of chickens scalded alive in hot water tanks

As shocking as these abuses are, they are not uncommon. There are no federal laws to protect chickens during their lives on factory farms, and most states specifically exclude chickens from protection against most forms of abuse. Even though chickens make up over 95 percent of the animals who are slaughtered every year, they are not protected by the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.

All of this means that Chick-fil-A suppliers are able to routinely get away with torturing chickens in ways that shock and horrify most people. In fact, the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that as many as a million chickens are scalded alive at slaughterhouses each year in the United States. A slaughterhouse could be shut down if even one cow or pig were scalded alive, but Chick-fil-A suppliers can inflict this gruesome death on countless chickens each and every day.

But we can help put a stop to this disgusting animal abuse.

Please, take a moment to sign my petition calling on Chick-fil-A to implement meaningful animal welfare policies and less cruel killing methods to prevent egregious animal abuse at its supplier farms.

And, consider taking further action yourself, by simply leaving chickens, and other farmed animals, off your plate.

Thank you.