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Growers tell senators state stepped in to depopulate birds after Cooks Venture’s collapse; committee presses agency on cleanup, authority and accountability
Summary
Growers from Cooks Venture described last‑minute notifications, stalled cleanup and lost flocks after the company’s financial collapse; the Department of Agriculture said it acted under Ark. Code 2‑33‑107 to depopulate birds and supervised composting and burial where possible, while members pressed for enforcement and legislative fixes for cleanup funding and grower protections.
Former contract growers who appeared before the Senate Agriculture Committee described confusion, missed communications and economic losses after Cooks Venture faltered and the state intervened to depopulate and dispose of birds.
"My birds were only 13 old. I was not aware that the state was coming until 12 hours before they got there to depopulate my chickens," said Leslie Harp, a former grower for Cooks Venture, describing poultry that she said had passed routine USDA biosecurity checks and for which she had feed and utilities available. Harp said farmers asked to keep birds until they could be processed for food and were denied, and she estimated that, had her flock reached processing weight, the loss would have been hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat.
Lance Logan, another former grower, described repeated failures to provide hauling equipment for euthanized birds and said he locked his gate until reliable transport was confirmed. "I wouldn't let them foam my…
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