Letter: The true cost of a $4.99 chicken

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 20, 2026

I have just finished reading the article written by reporter Andrea Brown entitled “Cluck Yeah!” in the March 17, 2026 edition of the Daily Herald.

I am dismayed that, rather than a true piece of journalism worthy of front-page status, this is just a fluff piece that more rightly belongs in the food section. Ms. Brown merely praises the ubiquitous rotisserie chicken found in every grocery store and its many versatile uses in the kitchen.

More deserving of coverage is how factory-farmed chickens are raised in filthy and inhumane conditions, causing contamination that endangers those who consume these animals.

There is well-researched journalism that exposes this scandal, but Ms. Brown ignores that completely. For instance, Costco, the main focus of her article, built their own chicken slaughterhouse in Nebraska in 2019 to supply all their stores nationwide. There has been intense criticism, as well as lawsuits against the company, for persistently allowing conditions that make salmonella and other pathogens inevitable in their birds: intensive confinement, overcrowding, abrupt handling, rough transport, extreme temperatures, and unsanitary slaughter. Evidence documents dim barns thick with ammonia from urine resulting in open sores that will not heal, birds bred to grow so large and so quickly their legs cannot bear their own weight, and animals unable to reach food or water.

To quote Sir Paul Mc Cartney, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.”

I encourage Ms. Brown and all her readers who buy poultry to consider the true cost of a $4.99 chicken, measured against both the needless suffering of the animals and the unacceptable health risks to consumers.

Victoria Mason

Everett WA