Gov. Paul LePage has written a letter to the Humane Society of the United States questioning its motives for releasing an undercover video showing dead chickens locked in cages with other egg-laying hens.
The governor wrote that the group’s decision to bring the video to the media first — and not his administration — made him question whether it was more interested in fundraising.
LePage also wrote that the state has no recent reports of food safety violations at the former DeCoster Egg Farm in Turner. And he even needled the Humane Society about its failed attempt in 2014 to ban bear hunting with dogs and traps.
The video was releasedearlier this week. State officials at the Maine Department of Agriculture responded the next day, saying eggs from the facility pose no immediate threat to human health.
The video is similar to another undercover video captured in 2009 from the Ohio-based group Mercy for Animals. That resulted in an animal cruelty lawsuit which the egg farm’s owner, Jack DeCoster, settled for $130,000.
Though DeCoster Entities still owns the facility in Turner, Hillandale Farms became manager of operations about a year ago. Both Hillandale and DeCoster are linked to a salmonella outbreak in 2010 that originated in Iowa and sickened nearly 2,000 people across the U.S.
