Animals

New Undercover Investigation Shows Horrifying Turkey Abuses

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Farmed Animals, Holidays, Investigations and Rescues, Animal Rights

Published November 18, 2008 @ 05:52PM PT

Update, 11/19: The New York Times has picked up the story. Read the article.

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Today the details of a sickening undercover investigation conducted between September and November of this year were revealed, and if your Thanksgiving plans include chewing on turkey, you absolutely must read on and must watch the undercover video (included at the end of this post). Here is an excerpt from the e-mail notice:

Men shoved feces and feed in turkeys' mouths and held turkeys' heads under water. One worker bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat because the turkey had pecked at the worker's back. The same man mimicked raping a turkey hen whom he had pinned against a shed floor.

Others told PETA's investigator that they had killed turkeys, including by hitting them with pieces of lumber and pipes. Workers broke turkeys' necks, sometimes leaving them to suffer for several minutes before trying again or stomping on their heads. A supervisor said that he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s. Many of the workers kicked and violently threw turkeys, and hens' beaks were cut with dull pliers. You can watch video footage from the investigation here.

Still convinced that you need that turkey flesh on your plate for Thanksgiving? Not sure? Here's more, straight from the investigator, via PETA's blog:

They are crammed into pens, sometimes 600 or 800 to a pen. There are almost 8,000 turkeys in one barn. Each of these turkey farms has two or three barns. The dust inside the barns is sickening. I can’t even go in without a respirator mask. I cough and choke from not being able to breathe. I see the turkeys panting much of the time. I think about grabbing one of them and carrying her outside and putting her in the grass where she could breathe and walk freely. It is so sad that they are reduced to this miserable existence just to make some profit.

There are times when I have to hold back the tears. To see the workers torture these animals is infuriating. Today we are loading a truck with male turkeys who have been bred to weigh 80-plus pounds—the same weight as my 10-year-old cousin. I will spend the next four hours watching men slam them into cages on the back of a semi truck in temperatures near 20°F. I have seen these guys stomp turkeys’ heads on the concrete. The sound of cracking beaks and breaking bones makes me cringe, but I can show no emotion. I am forced to watch in silent pain as these innocent lives are being destroyed.

More details are available at the main page for the investigation. Here is the video. What you're about to see can't be described in words. Please, make it a turkey-free, vegan Thanksgiving. Don't support this. Don't fund this. You know how wrong it is.