Animal advocacy group alleges abuse of fish at Cooke hatchery

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is investigating a complaint made by a Washington, D.C.-based animal advocacy nonprofit that salmon at Cooke Aquaculture's hatchery in Bingham in western Maine are being abused. The salmon are raised at the freshwater hatchery until they become smolts and are then transferred to saltwater grow-out pens off the coast of Washington County.
A video made by a Compassion Over Killing (COK) investigator working undercover at the hatchery shows salmon being stomped on and slammed in order to kill them, along with other cruel treatment. Following the release of the video, Cooke Aquaculture officials stated that the fish handling at the facility is unacceptable and the company will be instituting a retraining program.
COK's video shows workers slamming, stomping on and throwing fish; live fish having their eyes eaten by fish that are underfed and hungry and mistake their pupils as food; improper anaesthetization during vaccination and fin clipping; fish thrown into buckets and left to suffocate; spinal deformities and fungus growth on fish intended for human consumption; and alleged extreme crowding and high death rates of eggs and fish.
In a release, the nonprofit quotes Becca Franks, a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University, where she studies issues related to animal protection, as stating, "The science on fish sentience is clear: fish have the capacity to suffer and feel pain."
Mike Wolf, director of investigations for Compassion Over Killing, says, "While the aquaculture industry sells itself as a solution to the state of our overfished oceans, there's a big catch: Millions of farmed fish are languishing inside filthy tanks, and disease and pollution from fish factory farms take a toll on wild populations, too. It's long past time the fish farming industry is put on the hook for the suffering it's forcing upon animals."
Cooke Aquaculture officials met with Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry investigators on September 17 at the hatchery to discuss the complaint, which included hidden camera video footage of fish handling in the hatchery.
Concerning the complaint by the activist veganism organization, Glenn Cooke, CEO of the Cooke family of companies, states that he is "disappointed and deeply saddened" by what he saw on the video. "As a family company, we place animal welfare high in our operating standards and endeavor to raise our animals with optimal care and consideration of best practice." He says that the fish handling incidents documented in the video are unacceptable and that "these are not our standards and will not continue." The company is working with the department to ensure all of its practices are in compliance with state law and regulations. "We are speaking with all our employees, and we will institute a rigorous retraining program at our Maine facility," says Cooke. "This is one that we apply across all our global operations to enforce the importance of animal welfare."
He adds, "We regularly validate our internal best practices through regulatory compliance and voluntary third‑party audits of our operations. In addition to a rigorous global employee training and operational standards training program, we encourage employees to speak up when they have any questions or concerns or if they feel that practices are not being adhered to."
The company in now updating its facilities' Health Management Plan and enhancing procedures and training for handling protocols.