fallen sick to salmonella poisoning. cynthia bowers reports. >> reporter: former employees at wright county egg are now coming forward to describe conditions in the plants that nearly defy belief. >> tools are coming through, cat, myself, dead myself, chicken bones, live chickens, dead chickens. >> deanna and her husband, robert, who now own a small egg farm, worked at wright county in 2002 and 2008. she says the company routinely took eggs returned by grocery stores and repackaged them as fresh. arnolds say their complaints to supervisors went nowhere. >> i blame management for that. >> reporter: as for their complaints to on-site usda inspectors, the usda says the workers were there solely to inspect eggs for labeling, but tell cbs news their employees don't remember any of the conditions or complaints. in a statement friday, agriculture secretary says the case exemplifies the critical