For many years, complaints of abuse at the Hill's Pet Nutrition Center in Topeka, Kansas have raised questions on how the multi billion dollar company was allowed to operate. Located North of Topeka on 43rd Street, East of Topeka Ave., rumors have swirled for years of horrific living conditions for the animals, untrained and uncaring personnel, and physical abuse. It has been confirmed by veterinarians that the living conditions were horrible. Dogs living in a small cage with a wire grate floor to allow feces to drop through. It was noted that dogs were covered in their own feces and had no clean place to sit, lay, or sleep. Employees of the center have also expressed concerns of co workers hitting and kicking the animals.
Very few people know of the pet nutrition center in Topeka. Hill's and Colgate - Palmolive the parent company wanted it that way. They were afraid that if word got out of the horrific conditions at the center, they would drop farther in the pet food line. The center is located inside a large burm with elaborate security to keep anyone from seeing the poor living conditions.
In 2008, Hill's began a new expansion to improve their standing in the veterinarian community. Millions were spent on new buildings to improve the living conditions for the animals. Nothing was spent on improving the care for the animals. The same employees care for the animals in the same way in the new buildings as they did in the old ones.
Former and current employees have expressed their concerns over the operation of the facility which is met with discipline to the employee.
Hill's Pet Nutrition needs to evaluate all personnel at the facility and remove those that do not give the proper treatment and care to the animals. Multi billion dollar companies should not be granted immunity from animal abuse. Hill's employees are encouraged to report abuse below. Abuse should be reported as "anonymous" to protect your position.
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I work at Hills and agree with everything said. Some of the workers here do abuse the animals and I hate it but nothing i can do or i will get fired. There is even a team leader that abuses the dogs but nothing is done about it. If i make a complaint, i will back it up with photos and go through an attorney.
ReplyDeleteI used to work at the Hills Pet Nutrition Center in Topeka and they abused the animals back then as I am sure they do now.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad when a company spends more on equipment to feed the animals then they do on taking care of them. Hills has automatic cat and dog feeding stations that cost millions of dollars. The cat feeders are operated by the chip in the cat. When a cat walks up to the feeding area, the chip is read and the correct bowl is opened for that cat. Dogs are loaded into the feeding station 20 at a time and their chip scanned and then 1 or 2 bowls placed into that dogs station. The feeders are operated with electric and pneumatic controls. Bowls are placed onto a scale inside the feeder and the dog chooses which food he or she likes and eats it. The feeding sessions are timed and a horn sounds, air is forced onto the face, and then the door closes to end the feeding session. Connection between the feeding station and the computers is made wireless and data is stored in a database.
ReplyDeleteAll is well as long as the dog enters and exits the station when told. If they do not, they are sometimes dragged by their legs or kicked to force the dog in or out. Some of the dogs have been hit with the paddle that is used to scan the chip.
Animals deserve better than this and Hills needs to stop the abuse if they expect to compete in the pet food industry.
We have a problem with a couple of employees kicking the dogs to get them to go into the feeding stations. This only makes it more difficult for the rest of us at Hill's to do our job. The employees are team leaders and should know better and also are giving a bad example to other workers.
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