Undercover Hatchery Footage Draws Apology from Cooke Aquaculture

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Cooke Aquaculture, Bingham, Maine, holds a deformed salmon. Undercover video revealed animal welfare violations. The state of Maine is conducting an investigation of the facility. COK video image.

Undercover video footage released last month shows employees of Cooke Aquaculture’s Bingham salmon hatchery handling fish in a way that drew scorn from many and an apology from the company’s CEO, Glenn Cooke.

“I am disappointed and deeply saddened by what I 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,” wrote Cooke, in an official statement. “What we saw today is most certainly not reflective of these standards.”

Washington, DC-based nonprofit Compassion Over Killing (COK) gained access to conduct their hidden-camera investigation in a fairly straightforward way.

“We applied, as for any other work,” said Mike Wolf, COK Director of Investigations.

In COK’s investigative video, titled “Aquaculture: A Sea of Suffering,” Cooke employees are seen tossing fish through the air and onto the ground, killing them by smacking them onto posts, and heard describing some of the deformities found on abnormal fish.

“Fungus ate away his face,” said one employee, holding up a salmon with an open wound on its head.

Cooke Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson referred press to the official statement from Glenn Cooke, which says Cooke Aquaculture learned of the investigation on Sept. 16 when they were contacted by the Maine Department of Agriculture “regarding an animal welfare complaint submitted by an activist veganism organization.”

“These are not our standards and will not continue,” wrote Cooke.

COK’s investigation lasted for three months, after which time Wolf said they reported their findings to law enforcement. “They had a lot on their plate, so they were asking for some time,” said Wolf. “They wanted us to hold off until they conducted their site visit.” The Department of Agriculture has not released the findings of its investigation as of press time.

“We do believe this falls within animal cruelty,” said Wolf. “Especially for the throws, a lot of those throws were long distances.” COK has conducted similar investigations of other agricultural operations, including one of a chicken farm contracted by Tyson Foods, which resulted in convictions on 22 counts of animal cruelty.

According to COK’s video, Cooke’s Bingham hatchery raises millions of salmon from eggs every year. The salmon smolts are then grown to full size at one one of Cooke’s many sea-based salmon farming operations, and processed for human or pet consumption at their Machiasport facility. Though there are currently two companies working to open land-based salmon farms, New Brunswick-based Cooke is the only company farming salmon at sea in Maine.

COK’s video, which lasts nearly five minutes, describes hatchery conditions as unsanitary, and blurs the faces of Cooke employees as they describe unpleasant aspects of the indoor operation.

“The vaccinating stresses them out, some of them die off. Once you vaccinate them, it takes them like a week to start eating again,” says one. “It’s rough. Over the years, you kind of get desensitized,” says another.

The video narrator quotes the work of Dr. Becca Franks, a researcher at New York University. “The science on fish sentience is clear: fish have the capacity to suffer and feel pain,” writes Franks. For Wolf, the persistent notion that fish do not feel pain is puzzling.

“I think the main point is that fish do feel pain and have emotions, and I think that’s the most important thing,” said Wolf. “I’m hoping this investigation will bring the public’s awareness around to the fact that fish are an animal, the same as any animal.”

Wolf said that COK is candid about its goal of promoting a vegan lifestyle, but he does not believe their position changes anything about the activities chronicled in their investigation.

“The average person has no idea what’s happening in these facilities — in the factory farms, the slaughter plants, the fish hatchery — no one really knows what’s happening,” said Wolf. “Ideally, we want everyone to go vegan, but the reality is that’s not going to happen overnight.”

“I am very sorry that this has happened,” wrote Cooke “We are speaking with all our employees, and we will institute a rigorous re-training program at our Maine facility. This is one that we apply across all our global operations to enforce the importance of animal welfare.”

(See Undercover Video footage here and Cooke consent agreement here.)