Briefly famous after his refusal to hand out Carl’s Jr. coupons and subsequent firing and successful lawsuit, vegan bus driver, Bruce Anderson, was driving to work through San Pablo, California early last Thursday when he saw a horrific sight he’ll never forget. He frantically texted a message, “A chicken truck overturned on the freeway by San Pablo Dam Road. Chickens are on fire running all over the place. All lanes are closed.”

Our very own Anita Carswell and her partner, Brendan Montgomerie, live close by and rushed out to the scene. It was difficult and time consuming to get close to the scene of the accident because of the closure and ensuing traffic, and en route, requests for assistance were made. Once there, only a small scattering of chickens of the 1,000 or so who had been burned, crushed, or not among the few dozens recaptured by Animal Control were still loose.

During the commotion, Anita and Brendan managed to rescue two chickens. Eva Hamer from DxE had responded to the call to help, and managed to rescue one chicken as well. The rescued three chickens are now living out the rest of their long natural life spans at animal sanctuaries. They were incredibly lucky and a statistical anomaly.

Sadly, all the chickens recovered by Animal Control were unlucky enough to be returned to their “owners” for their intended bloody slaughter for meat, and were picked up the same day.

A reporter on the scene confirmed the birds are from Pitman Family Farms, a chicken supplier to Amazon. DxE has previously investigated Pitman Family Farms, revealing grisly scenes of sick and starving chickens inside filthy industrial sheds at so-called “free-range” farms.

You can learn the full details in our media release which was reported on by local news outlets.

If you’ve found yourself cheering for the survivors, but feeling sick at the thought of burning chickens, crushed chickens, or surviving chickens being put on yet another truck and sent to their bloody deaths, please decide today to stop supporting chicken suffering. There’s absolutely no need to do so. We can help.