Costco sued for animal cruelty

(Seattle, WA) -- Costco is being sued for alleged animal cruelty.

A lawsuit filed this week in King County, Washington claims chickens are being mistreated at Costco's processing plant in Nebraska. The suit filed by two shareholders claims the wholesale club intentionally breeds chickens that are too large to stand on their own, and that the birds "slowly die from hunger, injury and illness."

Costco has sold its own brand of rotisserie chickens since 2009, and sold over 100 million chickens last year. The company has not commented on the new lawsuit.