Just two years after the plant opened, it faced high-profile scrutiny and a lawsuit. In 2021, animal rights group Mercy for Animals secretly sent representatives to observe pre-slaughter chickens. Among their findings: Chickens with open wounds, surrounded in their own waste, and unable to walk. That prompted a Change.org petition urging Costco to change its poultry industrial practices and to "stop supporting animal cruelty." And then, alleging that Costco didn't change much if anything in light of the scandal, a group called Legal Impact for Chickens filed a lawsuit against Costco in June 2022. They allege that Costco violated animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws in Nebraska and Iowa, where some of its chicken processing also takes place.