SPOKANE — A lawsuit filed by an Oregon egg producer says an alarm system failed during an electrical malfunction that halted ventilation at a brooder building in Washington state, suffocating about 100,000 hens.
The suit in federal court seeks $500,000 from the installer of the controller.
The Capital Press agricultural publication reported that the producer is Willamette Egg Farms of Canby. The suit names Spectrum Communications of Moses Lake, which didn’t have a comment immediately.
The suit says a circuit breaker tripped May 10, 2013, halting ventilation fans in the brooder building at the egg producer’s Moses Lake facility.
It said a controller installed by Spectrum failed to signal an alarm for more than three hours, and the chickens died in abnormally high heat.
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