Animal rights groups will use any means to target and attack animal agriculture.

“Foster Poultry Farms and the Animal Legal Defense Fund have reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed in 2020 over the company’s water use at its poultry plant in Livingston, Calif.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund alleged that Foster Farms’ operations violated the California Constitution by unreasonably using water during chicken slaughter and processing. While Foster Farms denied the claims, it agreed to continue efforts to improve water conservation and animal welfare practices at the facility, which is the largest chicken processing plant on the West Coast.

“This settlement will increase water conservation in a critically overdrafted groundwater basin,” said Christine Ball-Blakely, senior staff attorney for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “It will also improve conditions for the many chickens slaughtered and processed in this plant each day.”

The announcement came days after the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld a lower court ruling that blocked a subpoena from the Animal Legal Defense Fund seeking internal records from Farmers Pride Inc. The group had requested the records for use in the Foster Farms case, arguing that Farmers Pride used less water and more humane methods.

The court ruled the information constituted trade secrets and that disclosure would place an undue burden on Farmers Pride without sufficient justification.”