Processing and Slow Induction Anesthesia (SIA)
SIA is the next step in implementing The Bell & Evans Humane Animal Welfare Standard.  We launched the program in April and made sure everything was working perfectly before introducing chickens to the process.

Now the chickens leave the farm in the safety of their custom-made SIA drawers. When they arrive at the plant, they are placed in the tunnel while still in the drawers. The birds are rendered unconscious slowly, taking between 6 and 7 minutes. Once exiting the tunnel, our birds are placed in line for processing while asleep... without pain or suffering. Our birds are never suffocated. There is no stress during their last minutes of life.

The drawers are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before being loaded into the modules and returned to the farm.

Our SIA process creates a better, safer working environment for our employees. In our competitor's conventional live hang areas, they're dimly lighted to keep birds from being startled, and their workers have to contend with the stress and dust from struggling, flapping chickens.