000618 Does Perdue Have a Chicken-Catching Machine

Salisbury, MD - It's hard to get a chicken to volunteer to be slaughtered. Someone has to go into a chicken house, chase after the birds and grab them.

That's been the usual first step in getting a chicken from the farm to the dining table. Until now.

Perdue Farms Inc., the nation's No. 3 poultry producer, has bought its first automated chicken catcher and hopes a few more of them will eventually replace its 150 or so human chicken catchers.

The timing of the machine's acquisition is being questioned by the chicken catchers, who are organizing a union and battling Perdue in court over how much overtime the company owes them.

“They're saying it wouldn't bother the guy's jobs, but I'm saying that's just not likely,” said Larry Simpkins, a catcher who lives in Accomac, Va.

Simpkins said rolling out the chicken-catching machine is an attempt to intimidate the union organizers.

Jim Dennis, vice president of roaster operations at Perdue, said the company simply wants to automate another part of its process and has been shopping for a chicken- catching machine for a while.

The English company that makes the machines for Perdue has been marketing more primitive versions for years, a Perdue spokeswoman said.

“Long term, we'd like to be able to go to total automation,” Dennis said. “The reason being we want that job easier on our people. It's a very hard job.”

The chicken-catching machine is a John Deere riding mower with chutes and conveyor belts on both sides. On the front of the mower is a rolling barrel with foot-long wiggly rubber fingers.

As the machine is driven through a chicken house, the rubber fingers catch the chickens, guide them into the chutes and onto the conveyor belts. The chickens are placed in stackable drawer-front boxes, which a forklift drops onto the back of a truck.

The chickens are then taken away to be slaughtered and sold at supermarkets.

The five chicken-catching machines Perdue plans to buy will cost the company millions of dollars, said spokeswoman Tita Cherrier.

The machines are slower than catching chickens by hand, but Cherrier said they aren't as rough on the birds.

“We've found 14% less bruising, which means we can sell more of the product,” Cherrier said.

Cherrier said the company intends to offer processing plant jobs to the human chicken catchers who will no longer be needed.

That hasn't won over the chicken catchers or the people who have fought on their behalf for better working conditions, like the Rev. Jim Lewis, a member of the Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance.

“It's designed to scare the workers and chill the union,” Lewis said. “It's more fear and intimidation by Big Chicken.”

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