A new undercover investigation has revealed inhumane and potentially illegal treatment of chickens at a slaughter plant in Butterfield, Minnesota. The undercover video filmed at Butterfield Foods marks the first-ever exposé at a slaughter plant for so-called “spent” hens — egg-laying chickens who are sent to be killed once they are no longer deemed profitable. Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for the Humane Society of the United States, described the group’s findings in a phone call with reporters.

Paul Shapiro: “What we found and documented on video at Butterfield is truly sickening. Perhaps most horrifying is that many birds at Butterfield are scalded alive, killed by drowning while fully conscious in tanks of scorching hot water. These hens are called cadavers by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they’re called 'red birds' by the industry because the color of their skin turns red from blood rushing to the surface because their hearts are still beating when they’re submerged in these tanks.”