Sunrise Farms co-owner Arnie Riebli appears on CBS San Francisco telling about what he is doing to protect his chickens from bio contamination. Riebli, a fourth generation Sonoma County rancher and in 2011 received the Petaluma Chamber’s Excellence in Agriculture Award, as a precaution would not allow the KPIX reporter John Ramos on his grounds and instead met him at the Henny Penny. Sunrise Farms take extra precautions not to spread avian flu which could be devastating for the chickens and revenues of the farmer. Riebli says that if 
you get avian flu in a flock of chickens you would experience a 95% mortality within a 6-day timeline. Sunrise Farms has spent up to $2 million for what Riebli calls “self insurance and self-preservation” to help assure and eliminate cross contamination. The temporary increased cost and as many of 45 million chickens lost to avian flu, it’s no wonder egg prices increased in stores. He says if the outbreak ends the chicken population will recover as chicken farmers tend to over produce and will have no problems recovering over time. In his words “They will all come home to roost” making the increase costs temporary.
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What’s devastating is how these chickens are raised. ‘Cage-free’ means they have dirt floors and a slice of sun streaming into a dark, filthy, cacophonous environment with hundreds of thousands of other chickens. The chickens have their beaks sliced off by a hot wire cutter to prevent pecking one another as they are driven mad in their insanely chaotic environment.