Animals on Factory Farms / 51animal rights groups were actually showing the workers
how to carry the birds, and they were doing it. So it’s not
like they were all these evil people. I mean it was horrible,
the work they did there. But at the same time, with us there,
they did it differently.^22By September 28, rescuers had persuaded camera crews from
ABC and Associated Press to cover the story. Buckeye offi cials
agreed to allow fi lming on the premises. In a public relations dis-
play, William Glass, the chief operating offi cer of Buckeye, told an
Associated Press reporter, “Our biggest situation is to reach these
chickens and end their pain and suffering.”^23 On September 29,
Buckeye issued a press release announcing that because of “worker
safety” concerns, it would no longer remove hens from cages. This
turned out to be a cover story, as Farm Sanctuary and other groups
learned that OSHA did not share these concerns. Photos and fi lms
taken by rescuers and members of the public began circulating and,
two days later, Buckeye decided to allow the rescue to continue. By
this time, the hens had been trapped for eleven days. Surprisingly,
many were still alive and alert. Bauston recalls: “On my last trip
to the Buckeye Egg Farm, the birds had been in the cages without
food or water for twelve days. I expected to see birds weak and near
death—what I saw instead were birds very much alive and mov-
ing frantically in their cages whenever I approached them.” Buck-
eye was allowing rescuers to take only robust hens. They would not
allow hens considered spent to leave the property, perhaps because
it would further expose the horrifi c state of the birds. By October
1, the rescue effort had become economically impractical for Buck-
eye. The company ended the rescue and brought in demolition
equipment to clear out the wreckage. Over half a million hens, still
trapped alive in their cages, were crushed to death or buried alive.
Despite resistance, rescuers saved about fi ve thousand birds dur-
ing their week-long effort. Approximately six hundred went to live
at Farm Sanctuary’s New York shelter, while the rest went to other
sanctuaries and adoptive homes. Walker reported that although the
majority of the birds had succumbed to health problems since their