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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Foster Farms faces cruelty complaint

From Wire Reports

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just as the chickens were about to go to slaughter, employees at a Foster Farms poultry company in Fresno County, California, began hitting them and pulling out their feathers.

That video footage, obtained in an undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals, an animal rights group based in Los Angeles, led it to file a complaint Thursday with the Federal Trade Commission against the American Humane Association and Foster Farms for falsely advertising that the slaughterhouse treats its animals humanely.

“The abuse that we documented stands in stark contrast to the labeling on these Foster Farms chicken products,” said Vandhana Bala, the general counsel for Mercy for Animals.

The animal anti-cruelty group is hoping to prevent Foster Farms from using the American Humane Association’s certified logo on its products. The logo certifies the company meets its standards for the humane treatment of its animals.

“Customers are willing to pay a higher price for products that are considered humane,” Bala said.

In response to the FTC complaint, Foster Farms said in a statement it had recently fired five employees “who were directly involved in abusive behavior or witnessed incidents without reporting the violations to management.”

Tesla sets delivery record

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Electric car maker Tesla’s second-quarter deliveries surged 52 percent to set a company record exceeding 11,000 vehicles.

The company had surpassed 10,000 vehicles for the first time in the first three months of the year and Thursday said it had broken that record, delivering 11,507 vehicles.

Tesla makes only one car, the Model S sedan, but CEO Elon Musk said last month he expects to begin deliveries of an SUV, the Model X, in three or four months.

The car maker cautioned that record deliveries are not an indicator of overall financial results. The company has consistently lost money as it ramps up production. Despite record sales in the first quarter, Tesla lost $154 million.

Google sorry over ‘gorillas’

NEW YORK – Google is apologizing after reports surfaced that an automatic image-recognition feature in its Photos application was identifying images of some black people as “gorillas.”

A New York man posted a picture of himself and a female friend on Twitter earlier this week, showing that the Google image software had tagged both of them as “gorillas,” which is sometimes used as a racial slur.

Google says it’s “appalled and genuinely sorry” for what happened with the image-recognition feature. It says it’s taking immediate action to stop those kinds of results from appearing again.

U.S. factory orders dip in May

WASHINGTON – Orders to U.S. factories fell in May by the largest amount in three months, while a key category that signals business investment plans dropped for a second month.

Factory orders declined 1 percent in May from April, when orders retreated 0.7 percent, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. Orders in a category that serves as a proxy for business investment were down 0.4 percent.

Much of the weakness in May reflected a big 35.3 percent fall in demand for commercial aircraft. But even outside of the volatile transportation category, orders were up only a tiny 0.1 percent. The lackluster showing suggests that manufacturing is still struggling with challenges such as lower energy prices and a strong dollar, which dampens exports.