Following confirmation of a HPAI outbreak at a Maricopa County facility affecting 2.3 million egg-laying hens, Animal Outlook's investigator travelled to Arizona to record depopulation efforts at Hickman's Eggs in Tonopah. The footage shows piles of dead birds being poured into dump trucks by wheel loaders scooping out huge barns and workers without personal protective equipment covering their eyes, face, and mouth. Animal Outlook's footage was picked up by AZ Family (the local CBS affiliate) and local news source InMaricopaCounty. Thanks to Dr. Crystal Heath of Our Honor for her expert guidance.  A recent, relatively unnoticed, change to USDA indemnity payments increases compensation to producers from $7 to nearly $17 per bird. Hickman's Eggs--the largest Egg producer in the Southwest and notorious user of prison labor--stands to earn more than $38 million from this mass killing. A fourth outbreak at a Hickman's facility in less than a year was reported in the same week, bring the total number of birds killed by Hickman's due to bird flu to 4.9 million in the past year. With the taxpayer burden likely to be around $72 million.  Around two thirds of egg-laying hens affected by bird flu in the US are killed using VSD+. Animal Outlook's investigator filmed propane trucks exiting the Tonopah facility, suggesting that propane was being delivered for heaters.  https://animaloutlook.org/investigations/hickmans-eggs-investigation/