Chicken Growers File Lawsuit Against Pilgrim's Pride

"This is what we planned to do for the rest of our lives," says Robin Dunlap, a chicken grower in Springfield.

At one time, Dunlap grew 70,000 chickens for Pilgrim's Pride.

"This was 99% of our income," says Dunlap.

All of that is gone. Pilgrim's Pride announced last month it would "idle" or stop production at its Clinton processing plant.

Dunlap says she's in worse shape than those 600 employees who will be laid off in October. Dunlap says she's invested at least $500,000 into her farm. Although, she has cattle, it would not come close to covering those costs.

"They had promised us; we had been under the impression we were going to be getting chickens," says Dunlap. Dunlap says those false promises led to this lawsuit that accuses Pilgrim's Pride of fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation. Jim Thompson from Alabama represents the growers.

"Idle is a nice word that says we quit, we're leaving this market. They call it idling; we call it walking off from an agreement," says Thompson. Dunlap says four chicken houses easily cost a half million dollars. Yet, Dunlap did not have a written contract that assured Pilgrim's Pride was there to stay.

"It's not just a verbal hand shake. There's not a farmer out there that will spend a half million dollars in an investment that he has no standing on," says Dunlap. She says she has a case because just two weeks before Pilgrim's Pride closure announcement, she says Pilgrim's Pride "came in and told us we're going to reduce some things to overcome the economy, lower the size we keep in each house, but you will get them back and quicker."

Pilgrim's Pride says it does not comment on pending lawsuits. The company has 30 days to respond to the lawsuit. Growers in the lawsuit are from Van Buren County, Pope County, Conway County, and Perry County.