Cooke hatchery abuses allegedly repeat after 2019 apology

A seven-year follow-up investigation by Animal Outlook alleges continued severe welfare problems at a salmon hatchery in Maine owned by Cooke Aquaculture—raising fresh scrutiny of promises of reform after a 2019 undercover exposé.

For nearly a decade, Cooke Aquaculture has been able to point to an apology.

In 2019, the animal protection nonprofit Animal Outlook exposed cruelty at a salmon hatchery in Maine owned and operated by Cooke Aquaculture, described in the investigation as the world’s largest privately held seafood company. The company apologized and said it would make changes.

But when Animal Outlook sent an undercover investigator back into the same hatchery in late 2025—about seven years after Erin Wing’s work there—the organization says it found similar welfare problems again. The follow-up exposé recently prompted a new round of scrutiny. with Maine officials confirming they are conducting an animal welfare investigation in response.

Wing’s undercover stint lasted for nearly three months at the hatchery in Maine. where she worked as a hatchery technician helping raise millions of delicate salmon eggs into juveniles. Those juveniles were transported to Cooke’s fish farms off the coast of Maine. where they were fattened up for slaughter and sold under the brand name True North Seafood at grocery stores across the Northeastern US.

According to the 2019 investigation. Wing documented workers culling diseased fish by repeatedly striking them against the sides of tanks and stomping on their heads; live fish left in buckets to suffocate or be crushed to death by other fish; and fish overcrowded into tanks. including some born with spinal deformities or dying from painful fungal diseases that ate at their faces.

Shortly after Animal Outlook released the video, Cooke Aquaculture CEO Glenn Cooke apologized in a statement. “As a family company. we place animal welfare high in our operating standards and endeavor to raise our animals with optimal care and consideration of best practice. ” he wrote. “I am very sorry that this has happened.”.

Maine’s department of agriculture investigated the hatchery after the first exposé but did not file any charges. The reason given was that Cooke had committed to retraining its employees and updating its facility management plan, among other measures.

Animal Outlook says those promised reforms did not stick.

In the 2025 follow-up, the nonprofit documented severe issues it says are similar in kind and scope. Animal Outlook’s second investigator worked at the same hatchery in Maine in late 2025. and the investigator is not named due to the covert nature of the work. Among the behaviors documented. the organization says workers were culling fish by repeatedly beating them with metal rods on more than a dozen occasions. even though Animal Outlook says stunning equipment was available on-site. The organization also describes leaving some bludgeoned fish to thrash on the ground out of water for as long as 90 seconds to suffocate. and it says it recorded two instances of employees dropping live fish into buckets to suffocate.

The investigation alleges workers were also shooting and bleeding out fish that were not fully anesthetized. causing what the organization called “some of the worst suffering documented at the facility.” In one scene described in the exposé. a worker is shown cutting into a fish while the fish’s heart is still beating.

Animal Outlook says it documented 133 instances of what appeared to be improper killing. throwing. and rough handling. along with fungal and bacterial infections—conditions the organization links to poor water quality—deformities. overcrowding. and other animal welfare problems. The nonprofit also describes multiple unexplained mass fish mortalities of hundreds or even tens of thousands of fish dying.

Culum Brown, a professor and prominent researcher on fish welfare at Macquarie University in Australia, said in an email that “It looks to me like they have a systemic welfare issue at this farm.”

Cooke Aquaculture did not respond to an interview request for this story and declined to respond to detailed questions about the investigation. In a statement to Vox, a spokesperson acknowledged the hidden camera investigation and said the company is reviewing the footage. “Appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken with respect to employees who have not followed company policy.”.

The company is certified by Best Aquaculture Practices, a program that promises “safe, responsible and ethical farm-raised seafood.” Best Aquaculture Practices declined an interview request for this story. The program said an investigation into Cooke Aquaculture is currently underway.

Animal welfare critics say the certification doesn’t mean what consumers may assume. Aquatic Life Institute rates Best Aquaculture Practices as having the lowest animal welfare standards among nine aquaculture certification programs it reviews. citing how it compares to other certifiers on issues including overcrowding. environmental enrichment. transport. and stunning and slaughtering. Best Aquaculture Practices responded by saying. in an emailed statement. that it is “actively engaged with ALI [Aquatic Life Institute] and has integrated several of their recommendations.”.

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry confirmed to Vox that it is conducting an animal welfare investigation in response to Animal Outlook’s investigation.

The 2025 exposé also documents concerns beyond welfare. Animal Outlook describes problems tied to salmon escaping from farms into rivers and streams. where farmed fish can compete with wild salmon for resources and mate with them—contributing to what researchers call “genetic pollution. ” which can create hybrid salmon with lower survivability rates.

In the investigation video. a worker says the company failed to follow an escape prevention protocol that involves putting a screen on waste discharge pipes releasing into the Kennebec River. The worker says. “They have screens that are supposed to be down. ” adding that “there’s so much shit in there that… we pretty much just keep them up all the time.”.

The Kennebec River is home to endangered Atlantic salmon. and it is also the site of a $300 million project to restore their populations. according to the account included in the investigation. Neville Crabbe of the conservation nonprofit Atlantic Salmon Federation told Vox that the escape of farmed fish is a significant contributor to population collapse and loss. adding that “Cooke is basically intentionally allowing” their release.

Animal Outlook says the 2025 investigator also heard suggestions that company culture fosters callousness. A manager told the investigator that “Unfortunately. I don’t think the company is in it for the fish health side. they just want fish production. ” and said “Kinda why our vet[erinarian] left too.” Speaking about the veterinarian. an employee told Animal Outlook that “they just disregard her shit all the time.”.

The investigation includes an especially unsettling recording. described as coming from a manager who Animal Outlook alleges worked at the hatchery in 2019 when Wing investigated it and was still employed there in 2025. In that recording. the manager says of Wing: “I hunted her down and I found her on Instagram… I was gonna send like a horse tongue or something to her mail… I was gonna send like a deer tongue or something. or like some brains. Cause she’s like an animal activist… Bitch.”.

Wing. reached after the recording surfaced. told the reporter she felt concerned for her family’s safety and that she believes the recording shows that those involved were “not sorry that they did what they did — they’re sorry that they got caught.” She also expressed empathy for employees who. she said. have little control over how the company operates.

Cooke’s 2019 apology and the later exposé are now colliding in the public record. The emotional disconnect is part of what makes the story land: promises of reform after a hidden-camera investigation don’t necessarily translate into changed conditions on the ground.

Animal protection groups have described this pattern across many animal industries—investigations that lead companies to apologize and promise improvements. only for follow-up investigations to find persistent abuse. Animal Outlook says it has conducted nearly 200 investigations into US farms raising chickens. pigs. cows. turkeys. and fish. documenting standard practices as well as malicious cruelty.

Some corporate changes do occur, the nonprofit says, including phasing out small cages for pigs and chickens. But its argument is that, too often, relapses and repeated findings show the limits of investigations alone—especially when companies face little sustained oversight.

In its account. Animal Outlook points to companies across the animal protein sector. including Foster Farms (six investigations). Butterball (four investigations). Cal-Maine (two investigations). Smithfield Foods (around nine investigations). Tyson Foods (10 investigations). and Fairlife (around five investigations. though Fairlife has denied sourcing from some of the investigated farms).

The core question now is what changes after the next video is released.

Maine officials confirmed they are investigating Cooke’s hatchery after Animal Outlook’s follow-up. Cooke says it will review the footage and take “appropriate disciplinary measures” for employees it says violated company policy. Best Aquaculture Practices says it is also investigating.

But for many consumers. the repeated cycle is already familiar: statements. apologies. and promises on one side—new findings on the other. In this case. the distance between the 2019 apology and the 2025 return to the same facility is seven years. long enough for reforms to have been tested and measured.

Animal Outlook’s investigation suggests they were not.

Cooke Aquaculture Animal Outlook salmon hatchery Maine investigation animal welfare undercover investigation Best Aquaculture Practices True North Seafood Atlantic Salmon Federation Kennebec River