Egg Farm Fined

A federal jury has declared Olivera Egg Ranch, a factory farm in California’s Central Valley that confines more than 600,000 chickens, a nuisance. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), in addition to a group of local residents, filed the case in 2008, citing that the farm’s 13-acre liquid-manure pool and noxious emissions, among other effects, were destroying the neighboring community. As a result of the ruling, Olivera must pay local residents damages of more than $500,000. “The day of reckoning has finally come for one of the Central Valley’s most notorious air polluters,” says Jonathan R. Lovvorn, senior vice president and chief counsel for HSUS’ Animal Protection Litigation.