An organic group has accused Foster Farms of embellishing its poultry’s quality of life in advertising. The group alleges the chickens are instead raised in cramped and unnatural conditions.

The Organic Consumers Association nonprofit has filed a complaint that requests a court order against the poultry processor’s alleged false advertising but seeks no financial damages other than compensation for litigation expenses.

Foster Farms should be prohibited from making “misleading and deceptive” representations about its poultry products “unless and until it changes its animal husbandry practices to comport with its marketing as understood by consumers,” the complaint said.

The poultry company, which is based in Livingston, Calif., and owned by a private equity firm, did not respond to requests for comment.

In recent years, proposals to build or expand poultry facilities contracted to Foster Farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley have come under fire from local opponents, galvanizing changes to the state’s regulations for confined animal feeding operations.

According to OCA’s lawsuit, Foster Farms tells consumers that its chickens enjoy several “freedoms” — from injury, pain, disease, cages, fear and distress — but  those statements are belied by the company’s actual practices.

The nonprofit emphasizes that it’s not pursuing a class action lawsuit to obtain compensation on behalf of numerous consumers, presumably to distinguish its complaint from the surging number of such cases in recent years.

The plaintiff argues the poultry company’s marketing claims have been disproven by footage from undercover investigations conducted by an animal rights group, Mercy for Animals, which allegedly shows Foster Farms subjecting chickens to “extreme confinement.”

“The indoor space that Foster Farms allocates to it chickens is minimal — less than one square foot per bird, or about the size of a sheet of standard printer paper— which does not give its chickens room to express natural chicken behaviors, roam, run, or even turn around,” the complaint said.

Surveys have found that consumers believe chicken meat products labeled as “humanely raised” shouldn’t come from birds that spend their lives indoors in “windowless sheds” without enough room to stretch their wings and roam freely, according to OCA.

Statements on the Foster Farms website have led consumers to believe its chickens can “express natural instinctive chicken behaviors” when they actually occupy “barren environments at high stocking densities,” inhibiting their activities and making them susceptible to disease, the lawsuit said.

Apart from the allegations related to living conditions, the Organic Consumers Association also claims that Foster Farms has subjected poultry mistreatment during slaughter, citing USDA inspection reports obtained with public records requests.

According to the complaint, the USDA has documented problems at the company’s slaughterhouse in Livingston, Calif., including employees failing to properly euthanize poultry and roughly throwing living birds into bins meant for dead ones, causing them to suffocate.

The lawsuit lists other alleged instances of chickens suffering “needless injury and trauma” reported by a USDA inspector.

Such alleged mistreatment is contrary to representations made by Foster Farms in marketing materials, violating consumer protection statutes in Washington, D.C., according to the lawsuit, which is proceeding in federal court there.