Why No Arrests Yet? PETA Pushes Police for Action in Turkey Abuse Case

For Immediate Release:
April 20, 2022

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Through a sky-high message that just went up off I-81, PETA is calling out the Pennsylvania State Police for failing to file charges against the workers caught on video kicking, stomping on, beating, and otherwise abusing turkeys on farms affiliated with Plainville Farms—including one near Upper Strasburg. PETA shared the findings of its undercover investigation with the state police eight months ago—but the agency has yet to charge the abusers, despite overwhelming evidence. Plainville, based in New Oxford, is a turkey supplier to Wegmans, Publix, Harris Teeter, and other top grocers.

“Plainville Farms employees were caught on camera mock-raping and stomping on turkeys, throwing hens at each other like basketballs, and leaving battered birds to convulse in agony,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on the Pennsylvania State Police to finally hold these abusers accountable and is appealing to everyone who is against cruelty to animals to help prevent more abuse by eating vegan.”

Prior to PETA’s investigation, Plainville was certified “humane” by Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) and claimed to consumers that the turkeys were “free from harm”—which PETA’s investigation showed to be false. After the investigation, G.A.P. suspended the company’s certification, Whole Foods pulled its turkey products, and Plainville terminated 13 of its workers.

The state police recently failed to pursue another well-documented case of cruelty to farmed animals. In March 2020, the agency announced that no charges would be filed following PETA’s investigation into Reitz Dairy Farm, where a worker struck a cow nearly 60 times with a cane and other cows were denied care for massively swollen joints seeping blood and pus.

PETA’s billboard is located on Route 997/Black Gap Road at the I-81 ramp near Scotland.

Broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available here. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.