A new Compassion Over Killing investigation has exposed never-before-seen footage of extreme abuse inside the seafood industry. The footage was recorded at a salmon hatchery owned by a company that has recently teamed up with Martha Stewart. MAKE WAVES TODAY: Join us in urging Martha Stewart to end her True North salmon partnership and invest in a plant-based seafood alternative instead!
COK’s new video was recorded at a massive hatchery in Bingham, Maine owned by Cooke Agriculture, the parent company of True North--which just launched a seafood line with homemaking icon Martha Stewart. The footage reveals workers throwing improperly anesthetized fish across great distances--sometimes into another tank; other times, into waterless buckets, where they were left to either be crushed by others or suffocate to death. Imagine the horror if this violence were committed against any other animal, like a dog, cat, or chicken. But at Cooke, it was like a game to the workers as they attempted “trick shots” and blocked each other’s tosses.
The investigation also reveals hatchery employees stomping on fish's heads and slamming them against the ground multiple times in failed efforts to kill them. Often, they were left on the ground, still conscious and writhing in pain. The salmon at Cooke are also confined in such filthy, overcrowded, and putrid tanks that fungal infections are the norm. Many fish were missing eyes because they are starved and forced to live in such filthy water conditions that they can mistake each other’s pupils for food as they desperately search for nourishment.
As the world’s major wild fish populations have been cut in half since 1970, commercial fishing is clearly unsustainable for our future. Yet COK’s footage reveals just why factory farming fish is not the solution. The cruelty that COK caught on camera at Cooke Aquaculture is not an isolated case. As long as there is a demand for Atlantic salmon meat and seafood in general, these murky practices will continue as employees in facilities all over the country are forced to cut corners to turn a profit. Martha Stewart, a self-proclaimed animal lover, has the opportunity and responsibility to turn the tides on sea animal cruelty by dropping her True North Seafood line.
Millions of consumers are realizing that the best way to help fish and to keep our bodies and oceans healthy is by leaving animal products out of our shopping carts and off of our plates, leading to the proliferation of delicious vegan seafood like those from Good Catch, Sophie’s Kitchen, and Ocean Hugger Foods. Even animal meat giant Tyson Foods has jumped aboard with its recent investment in vegan shrimp maker New Wave Foods.
Join us in urging Martha Stewart to make waves for sea animals by ending her True North salmon partnership and instead paving the way to the future of food by investing in a plant-based seafood alternative: Sign the petition today!