The group Mercy for Animals has released another undercover video that has triggered an investigation by the B.C. SPCA.

According to the B.C. SPCA, it shows "multiple workers, including a supervisor, at Elite Farm Services Ltd. in Chilliwack abusing and torturing broiler chickens".

Elite is licensed to round up chickens, which were to be transported to the Lilydale/Sofina Foods plant in Port Coquitlam. 

“The images in this video are absolutely sickening and the individual employees and the companies involved need to be held accountable,” Marcie Moriarty, chief prevention and enforcement officer for the B.C. SPCA, said in a news release. 

It noted that the "video shows workers dismembering and killing, throwing, kicking and hitting the birds and forcing the animals into violent sexual acts with one another".

The images were taken between May 10 and June 9. Mercy for Animals is a nonprofit group that specializes in making undercover videos of the abuse of farm animals.

“The video includes some of the most brutal and sadistic acts of violence against animals I have ever seen,” Moriarty stated. “It is extremely difficult to watch.”

Warning: the video below is very gruesome

The B.C. SPCA will forward a report to Crown counsel recommending charges of animal cruelty under the Criminal Code and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Maximum fines are $75,000 and the maximum prison sentences for these offences are five years, according to the news release.

“We would expect the industry to come out strongly against this abuse by immediately suspending the workers involved, suspending contracts to Elite Farms Services until the matter can be resolved and by reviewing the industry’s monitoring systems across the province to ensure that all workers handling broiler chickens and other poultry are at a minimum meeting the standards outlined in the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Hatching Eggs, Breeders, Chickens and Turkeys and are acting in compliance with animal transportation and cruelty laws,” Moriarty added.

Two years ago, a Mercy for Animals undercover video prompted charges in connection with the abuse of dairy cattle in Chilliwack.

“In that case the BC SPCA also worked with the provincial government to have the Code of Practice for Dairy Cattle adopted into a new regulation, so that the “generally accepted practices” outlined in the code became clearly entrenched in the law,” Moriarty declared. “We will pursue a similar path with government moving forward with the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Hatching Eggs, Breeders, Chickens and Turkeys.”